This post was updated March 7 at 1:30 a.m.

The United States Department of Justice announced Wednesday it had opened an investigation into the UC over alleged antisemitic treatment of its employees.

The investigation – led by a task force President Donald Trump said he created to “combat antisemitism” – will assess whether the UC violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prevents employers from discriminating against staff on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex or religion. Leading task force member Leo Terrell said in a press release that UC faculty members – particularly at UCLA – have experienced an uptick in antisemitic incidents since Palestinian political party and militant group Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.

The task force will decide if the UC violated Title VII by allowing an antisemitic, hostile work environment.

“There has been an outbreak of antisemitic incidents at leading institutions of higher education in America, including at my own alma mater at the UCLA campus of UC,” said Terrell, a UCLA alumnus, in the press release. “These campuses are also workplaces, and the Jewish faculty and staff employed there deserve a working environment free of antisemitic hostility and hate.”

UC Office of the President spokesperson Rachel Zaentz said in an emailed statement to the Daily Bruin that the University is aware of the investigation and remains committed to fighting antisemitism.

“We want to be clear: the University of California is unwavering in its commitment to combating antisemitism and protecting everyone’s civil rights,” Zaentz said in the statement. “We continue to take specific steps to foster an environment free of harassment and discrimination for everyone in the university community.”

Pro-Palestine protesters set up encampments at all eight UC undergraduate campuses last spring. While protesters at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Merced and UC Riverside dismantled their encampments peacefully, police forcefully took down encampments at UCLA, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego and UC Santa Cruz, resulting in over 400 arrests in total.

Jewish students and faculty have alleged they faced antisemitism throughout the first Palestine solidarity encampment at UCLA. Three Jewish students sued the university in June, alleging that protesters created a “Jew Exclusion Zone” in areas within and surrounding the encampment.

[Related: Court rules pro-Palestine protests cannot obstruct Jewish students’ accessibility]

A judge sided with the students in August.

“Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith,” said U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi in the ruling. “Under constitutional principles, UCLA may not allow services to some students when UCLA knows that other students are excluded on religious grounds, regardless of who engineered the exclusion.”

The investigation is one of several moves Trump has taken to combat alleged antisemitism and restrict pro-Palestine protests on college campuses since entering office.

The Department of Justice announced Friday that Trump’s antisemitism task force would visit UCLA – along with nine other university campuses – to investigate discrimination claims and speak with university administrators, impacted community members and local law enforcement.

Trump also said in a Tuesday post on Truth Social that he would revoke the federal funding of universities allowing “illegal” protests and would call for the expulsion or arrest of protesters. He added in the post that he would deport or imprison international student protesters, following a previous executive order to revoke their visas.

[Related: Trump outlines plans to punish students, campuses involved in ‘illegal’ protests]

“All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests,” he said in the post. “American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested.”

The task force announced Monday it would review federal funding given to Columbia University, whose campus has experienced several pro-Palestine protests, encampments and sit-ins since October 2023 – many of which resulted in arrests. The university’s alleged “inaction” regarding antisemitism triggered the review, according to the U.S. Department of Education, putting Columbia at risk of losing $51.4 million in federal contracts.

The Trump administration has not announced a review of the UC’s federal funding as of 2 p.m. Thursday.