By Helen Coster
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Education is reviewing safety at the University of California, Berkeley, in response to a protest at a November 10 Turning Point USA event, the department said on Tuesday, as the Trump administration challenges higher education and the California state university system in particular.
The department’s Office of Federal Student Aid will investigate whether UC Berkeley violated the Clery Act, which requires higher education institutions that receive federal funding to collect, report, and disseminate crime data to the public, support victims of violence, and publicly outline their policies and systems for improving campus safety.
“The Department will vigorously investigate this matter to ensure that a recipient of federal funding is not allowing its students to be at risk,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a release.
CHARLIE KIRK’S GROUP HOSTED EVENT
The university will cooperate with the government review, said Dan Mogulof, a Berkeley assistant vice chancellor, in an email.
“UC Berkeley has an unwavering commitment to abide by the laws, rules and policies that are applicable to the university,” he said.
The review relates to a protest at a campus event hosted by Turning Point USA, the conservative group founded by Charlie Kirk, an ally of President Donald Trump. Kirk was assassinated in September.
The Education Department said its review of UC Berkeley will “assess ongoing compliance issues as well as the November 10, 2025, incident” and requested a list of material that the university must produce within 30 days, including copies of daily crime logs and local police department call logs dating back to 2022.
The U.S. Department of Justice previously announced it was investigating UC Berkeley over the Turning Point USA protest.
Mogulof said the campus provided public reports about a fistfight over an attempted robbery and someone being hit by a thrown object on the evening of the Turning Point event. The administration “went to great lengths to support the First Amendment rights of all by deploying a large number of police officers from multiple jurisdictions, and a large number of contracted private security personnel,” he said.
Since Trump took office in January, the White House has targeted what it deems liberal-leaning institutions and tried to withhold funding from colleges and universities over issues such as pro-Palestinian protests, transgender policies, climate initiatives and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
The Trump administration has also canceled federal contracts worth millions of dollars with numerous schools to pressure them to change their admissions and hiring policies, among other issues. Courts have ordered many of the federal cuts be restored.
The public University of California has been one of the administration’s most frequent higher education targets.
In June, the Justice Department said it will investigate hiring practices at the state university to examine whether its efforts to boost faculty diversity violate anti-discrimination laws.
UC Berkeley and other California schools were included in a March 10 list of 60 universities and colleges under investigation by the Education Department for antisemitism.
(Reporting by Helen Coster in New York; editing by Donna Bryson and Rod Nickel)
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