The California Faculty Association has filed a lawsuit against the Board of Trustees of California State University, alleging the CSU unlawfully shared personal information of faculty at California State University, Los Angeles to the federal government.

The lawsuit, filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court on Friday, comes after the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s investigation into the CSU over claims of antisemitism within the system’s 23 campuses. The suit alleges that the CSU provided personal information of faculty at Cal State LA to the federal government without first notifying them, an action that goes against Article 1, Section 1 of California’s state constitution protecting their right to privacy.

A federal subpoena was issued on Sept. 25, calling on Cal State LA to provide email addresses and phone numbers of all the school’s employees. CFA called for Cal State LA to provide them with a copy of the subpoena before complying with the order, giving faculty a chance to object. On Oct. 1, the CFA says that the CSU responded to their request, notifying them that they had already shared the information.

“The CSU leadership is out of step with most Californians, and most people in the nation,” said CFA President Margarita Berta-Ávila in a statement. “While California is leading the nation in our efforts to fight the targeting and harassment of educators, government employees, LGBTQ folks, immigrants and Black and Brown communities, CSU capitulated without a fight to the Trump Administration’s witch hunt of faculty. We are suing for accountability at CSU and we demand they do more to protect faculty, students and academic freedom.”

The CSU has not yet responded to the CFA’s lawsuit, according to a spokesperson from CFA. 

The EEOC’s actions coincide with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights investigation into the CSU and multiple other colleges across the nation over their partnerships with the PHD Project, a nonprofit founded in 1994 to provide resources to underrepresented groups pursuing doctoral degrees in business. University of Kentucky, one of 45 schools included in the investigation, was found to have violated the Civil Rights Act through its partnership with the group. 

Cal State LA was one of many schools where students set up an encampment in protest of Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The current administration has targeted several universities that engaged in action critical of Israel.

“Too many universities have tolerated widespread antisemitic harassment and the illegal encampments that paralyzed campus life last year, driving Jewish life and religious expression underground,” said Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights.

Pro-Palestinian movements at universities have referred to the actions of Israel as genocide. The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory found Israel to be conducting a genocide in the region. 

The recent litigation isn’t the only filed suit by the CFA against the CSU. On March 8, 2023, the CFA filed an unfair practice charge against the CSU after they removed student vaccination requirements for Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Chickenpox, TDAP, Tuberculosis and Hepatitis B, failing to notify the union ahead of doing so. The California Public Employment Relations Board ruled that the CSU should have conferred with CFA before removing those requirements. The CSU appealed that decision in 2024, with a California Court of Appeals set to hear the case on Oct. 15.