Trump Administration Texted College Professors' Personal Phones to Ask If They're Jewish

[milestogo]

The school later told staff it had provided the Trump administration with personal contact information for faculty members.
Akela Lacy
April 23 2025, 11:16 a.m.

Most professors at Barnard College received text messages on Monday notifying them that a federal agency was reviewing the college’s employment practices, according to copies of the messages reviewed by The Intercept. The messages, sent to most Barnard professors’ personal cellphones, asked them to complete a voluntary survey about their employment. “Please select all that apply,” said the second question in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, survey.

“The federal government reaching out to our personal cellphones to identify who is Jewish is incredibly sinister.”
The choices followed: “I am Jewish”; “I am Israeli”; “I have shared Jewish/Israeli ancestry”; “I practice Judaism”; and “Other.”

Other questions asked respondents whether they had been subjected to antisemitism, as well as whether they were subject to “unwelcome discussions,” graffiti or signs depicting antisemitic messages or images, antisemitic or anti-Israeli protests, “unwelcome comments, jokes or discussions,” or “pressure to abandon, change or adopt a practice or religious belief.”

“The federal government reaching out to our personal cellphones to identify who is Jewish is incredibly sinister,” said Barnard associate professor Debbie Becher, who is Jewish and received the text. “They are clearly targeting what most of the United States, I hope and I think, defines as freedom of speech, but only in the case of anti-Israeli speech.”

https://theintercept.com/2025/04/23/trump-eeoc-barnard-columbia-texts-jewish/

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. This is unacceptable and disgusting

[Irish_Dem]

4. Just when I think they are hard pressed to be more disgusting, they rise to the challenge.

Damn them.

[marble falls]

2. They're trying to estimate how many "beds" they'll need at the "camps".

[Deuxcents]

3. The school has some responsibility here, I think. Personal information should have permission to be releaded

To the government or not. This intrusion is dangerous and should not happen 🤬

[Irish_Dem]

6. I agree, why is an employer giving out employee private phone numbers?

This is not right.

[progressoid]

8. It's the new EEOC

https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2025/04/23/eeoc-sends-texts-to-columbia-and-barnard-employees-asking-them-to-complete-survey-for-title-vii-investigation/

“Barnard was not given advance notice of this outreach,” Longley wrote.

Two days later, Longley wrote in an email to faculty obtained by Spectator that Andrea Lucas, acting chair of EEOC, had initiated a commissioner’s charge and Title VII investigation last summer into whether Barnard had discriminated against Jewish employees.

According to the EEOC website, a commissioner’s charge is initiated by an EEOC commissioner, rather than an employee at a company, following reports from an EEOC field office or “a member of the public.”

The website states that the EEOC typically collects the contact information of employees for companies under investigation, and that the commission “has the authority to issue administrative subpoenas and seek judicial enforcement when necessary.” Investigations which derive from a commissioner’s charge have resulted in 8 lawsuits from fiscal year 2015 to 2024, according to the website.

Longley wrote in the Wednesday email that Barnard “prides itself on being an inclusive and respectful workplace for all people, including our Jewish employees, and has been robustly defending the College against this EEOC inquiry.”


Longley added that EEOC was “legally entitled to obtain the contact information of Barnard employees” and that Barnard “complied with this lawful request.”

[Irish_Dem]

9. All the crimes committed by the Trump crime syndicate are legal now.

[Lovie777]

5. harassment and just plain bullying.................

[hlthe2b]

7. Wow! This is beyond Hitlerian.

[FakeNoose]

10. College professors need to dump their cellphones immediately

Switch to email only, or use VOIP cell phones maybe?