The California State University system’s chancellor, Mildred Garcia, shared in a September email that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has launched a systemwide investigation into universities across the CSU following allegations of antisemitism on its campuses.

“To this end, the EEOC has begun direct outreach to some faculty and staff members across the system to review allegations of antisemitism and to speak with them about their experiences on campus,” Garcia said. 

Additionally, the EEOC has also launched investigations into allegations of antisemitism on all 10 University of California campuses.

The CSU system has also been notified by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights of alleged discrimination due to involvement with The PhD Project, a private, nonprofit organization that aims to diversify business education and the corporate workforce, according to Garcia. 

“Until 2024, the CSU participated in The PhD Project to share faculty job postings on their job board and increase awareness of career opportunities at CSU campuses,” Garcia said. “However – consistent with the policy the CSU strictly follows in all cases – no student or applicant for CSU employment was given any preferential treatment based on race, national origin or any other protected characteristic.”

According to a PBS article, a number of colleges have distanced themselves from the organization as it has been targeted by the Trump administration for its diversity, equity, and inclusion framework. 

California State University, Los Angeles, received a subpoena from the EEOC, requiring the campus to disclose personal employee phone numbers and email addresses, following a volatile protest on their campus that resulted in substantial property damage last year.

Currently, the EEOC complaint that prompted an investigation into CSU has not directly affected SDSU.

“There is no indication that the complaint is related specifically to San Diego State University,” according to a statement from the university. “To date, SDSU has not received any notification from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).”

SDSU said it has and will continue to advance “education, awareness, and antisemitism prevention efforts” alongside its Presidential Task Force on Strengthening Community and Combating Antisemitism.

However, students report feeling unsafe and allege that the university is not doing enough to support them when discriminatory incidents occur. 

Second-year Jewish student Sam Rothstein accused the university of perpetuating incidents of antisemitism. Rothstein reported going through multiple incidents of antisemitic behavior from his professor and receiving no assistance from the university in preventing further occurrences.

“When I got here last year, in my freshman year, I had a teacher who was blatantly antisemitic towards me in class,” Rothstein said. “She made comments towards me in class that should not have been made in a classroom … She also said things that incited violence at an on-campus protest, ‘from the sea to the river,’ which is the same thing as ‘from the river to the sea’, which is calling for the death of all Jewish people, more or less.”

There have been no reported incidents of violence at protests on campus, though Rothstein claims that his sentiments towards his professor’s behavior give way to the feeling that violence is being encouraged.

Rothstein reached out to the university administration and the Title IX Office, but said that he didn’t receive enough assistance in resolving the incident.

“The Title IX Office essentially told me that there was nothing they could do to the teacher, and it amounted to a slap on the wrist,” Rothstein said. “After countless incidents with the teacher, Title IX said hate speech is protected … What is not protected is, emanate[ing] threats of violence, after she indeed state[d] threats of violence.”

Fourth-year student Charlotte Hopkins, who identifies as ethnically Jewish, said that she has not experienced antisemitism at SDSU.

“As a Jewish person, I do not believe antisemitism is a big issue,” she said. “Do I think antisemitism is an issue in general, in our life, in our society? Yes, but I don’t think it is in the way that Trump and his administration likes to make it seem like it is.” 

Hopkins said that she feels the Trump administration is overstating the matter of antisemitism as a “scapegoat” to target student activism. 

“I just feel like our climate is really scary right now, educationally, so this just makes me even more worried that they’re trying to, like, censor us,” she said. “I feel like the student population has always been the most vocal, and we’ve made changes in the past in other generations, so it’s a little scary to me that this is happening.” 

Hopkins said she feels that there has been more discrimination towards Middle Eastern students at SDSU, especially after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, contributing to a greater divide between communities. 

Students for Justice in Palestine President Jasmin Zeis-Khalil detailed her experiences with university faculty following alleged incidents of discrimination by faculty and students. 

“We haven’t had a single conversation with the university president as a presidential task force [Blue Ribbon Task Force on Islamophobia],” she said. “We’ve been trying to advocate and push for a meeting with the president for two years now, and it’s yet to happen. So, when President Adela is taking her time to be present at events for organizations on the other side and is not willing to address our community, it does not show that our campus is unbiased.”

Zeis-Khalil said that the task force did meet with de la Torre for the first time last week.

Rothstein shared a similar sentiment. When discussing the need for assistance from the university, Rothstein noted that there has been a lack of support in preventing cases of discrimination.

“I can confidently say this as a Jewish student here, I just don’t feel comfortable with [the SDSU administration] being in charge when something goes wrong,” Rothstein claimed. “Because this is the second time I’ve been brushed away, saying, ‘No, no, it’s fine.’ I just feel like there’s not a lot of resources here on campus. And if anything were to actually change, I would hope they start taking it a little more seriously.”

Zeis-Khalil also said she is worried that SDSU may also suppress student and faculty voices to avoid government intervention. 

“This is inherently an attack on diversity, equity [and] inclusion initiatives. The administration is trying to censor students, surveil students and professors, and it is an attempt to silence people who are challenging the U.S.’s foreign policy,” she said. “Universities are based on building an education with academic freedom and having access to diverse perspectives and free speech, and the CSU is now complicit in taking that away.”

Rothstein agreed that the university should not silence student voices but should provide security at student demonstrations. 

“So truly, I would just hope and pray that the implications [of the federal investigation] are just making these environments safer so people can voice their opinion,” he said. “I am a very strong believer to fight for what you believe in … I just kind of feel like the people that come in with hatred towards actual Jewish people … I think that’s where, like, the problem lies, if I’m being honest.”

SDSU said that they will continue to engage in efforts to strengthen “belonging and mutual respect” among students of all backgrounds and faiths. 

Students can report incidents of discrimination, harassment and retaliation through Inclusive SDSU.