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Most professors at<\/span> Barnard College received text messages on Monday notifying them that a federal agency was reviewing the college\u2019s employment practices, according to copies of the messages reviewed by The Intercept.<\/p>\n The messages, sent to most Barnard professors\u2019 personal cellphones, asked them to complete a voluntary survey about their employment.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease select all that apply,\u201d said the second question in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, survey.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe federal government reaching out to our personal cellphones to identify who is Jewish is incredibly sinister.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n The choices followed: \u201cI am Jewish\u201d; \u201cI am Israeli\u201d; \u201cI have shared Jewish\/Israeli ancestry\u201d; \u201cI practice Judaism\u201d; and \u201cOther.\u201d<\/p>\n Other questions asked respondents whether they had been subjected to antisemitism, as well as whether they were subject to \u201cunwelcome discussions,\u201d graffiti or signs depicting antisemitic messages or images, antisemitic or anti-Israeli protests, \u201cunwelcome comments, jokes or discussions,\u201d or \u201cpressure to abandon, change or adopt a practice or religious belief.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe federal government reaching out to our personal cellphones to identify who is Jewish is incredibly sinister,\u201d said Barnard associate professor Debbie Becher, who is Jewish and received the text. \u201cThey 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.\u201d<\/p>\n In an email to professors on Wednesday after The Intercept first reported on the text, the general counsel at Barnard, a women\u2019s college affiliated with Columbia University, said the EEOC initiated an investigation against Barnard last summer into whether the school had discriminated against Jewish employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n The EEOC was \u201clegally entitled to obtain the contact information of Barnard\u2019s employees\u201d to send out the option to \u201cvoluntarily participate in their investigation,\u201d Barnard vice president and general counsel Serena Longley wrote in the email obtained by The Intercept. Barnard complied with the request.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Going forward, the school said it would provide advance notice of any future requirements to provide staff information in connection with an investigation or litigation unless they were subject to a court order prohibiting them from doing so. Longley told staff they were not required to participate in the EEOC survey.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a previous email on Monday evening, the general counsel at Barnard said the school had received multiple reports about the EEOC texts.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBarnard was not given advance notice of this outreach,\u201d Longley wrote. \u201cIf you choose to respond, please know that both federal law and Barnard policy strictly prohibit any form of retaliation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Neither the EEOC nor Barnard immediately responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n The text messages are the latest episode stoking tensions on campus at Columbia, a flashpoint in the protests against the war on Gaza and the ensuing crackdown<\/a> carried out by school administrators and the federal government<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Trump administration has already weaponized the EEOC, once tasked with enforcing laws against discrimination, as part of Donald Trump\u2019s broad-based attacks on national programs to bolster \u201cDEI,\u201d<\/a> or diversity, equity, and inclusion. These initiatives have been villainized in Trump\u2019s rhetoric and attacked in executive orders that carried severe consequences for their targets.\u00a0<\/p>\n The EEOC is intended to be an independent agency. It currently lacks a quorum, meaning that it is operating largely at the whims of Trump appointee, Republican Acting Chair Andrea Lucas.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\nEEOC Investigation<\/h2>\n
Weaponizing EEOC<\/strong><\/h2>\n