U.S. Department of Education Initiates Review of University of California, Berkeley for Potential Clery Act Violations

The U.S. Department of Education’s (the Department) office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) initiated a focused review of the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) in response to a violent protest that erupted at a November 10, 2025, Turning Point USA event on its campus. The Department will investigate whether UC Berkeley violated Section 485(f) of the Higher Education Act, otherwise known as the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act (Clery Act), which requires institutions of higher education to meet certain campus safety and security-related requirements as a condition of receiving federal student aid. “Just two months after Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was brutally assassinated on a college campus, UC Berkeley allowed a protest of a Turning Point USA event on its grounds to turn unruly and violent, jeopardizing the safety of its students and staff. Accordingly, the Department is conducting a review of UC Berkeley to ensure that it has the procedures in place to uphold its legal obligation to maintain campus safety and security,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “This is not about students’ First Amendment rights to protest peacefully. This is about ensuring accurate and transparent reporting of crime statistics to the campus community and guaranteeing that every student can safely participate in educational programs and activities. The Department will vigorously investigate this matter to ensure that a recipient of federal funding is not allowing its students to be at risk.” UC Berkeley has a history of violating the Clery Act. In 2020, UC Berkeley was fined $2.4 million under a settlement agreement for the misclassification of 1,125 crimes and insufficient public crime logs. UC Berkeley agreed to appropriately train its Campus Security Authorities, review its campus safety procedures and forms, and submit revised campus safety policies and updated crime statistics to the Department. Per the agreement, the Department continues to monitor the actions of UC Berkeley, including conducting periodic on-site visits. The Department’s review of UC Berkeley will assess ongoing compliance issues as well as the November 10, 2025, incident. As part of the review, FSA has requested that UC Berkeley submit information within 30 days, including: Copies of the original 2025 Annual Security Report (ASR), and any revised versions of these reports that were produced for the purpose of complying with the Clery Act, along with credible evidence of distribution and/or redistribution; An “audit trail” showing all incidents of crime (organized by offense classification) for the calendar years 2022-2024; An “audit trail” showing all arrests made by UC Berkeley Police Department or other state or local law enforcement agencies, and all referrals for disciplinary action against students or employees for violations of state laws and local ordinances related to the illegal possession, use, and/or distribution of weapons, drugs, or liquor that were included in the statistical disclosures contained in UC Berkeley’s 2025 ASR; A copy of the UC Berkeley Police Department’s activity/dispatch/call log for calendar years 2022-2025; A copy of the daily crime log for calendar years 2022-2025; A list of all Timely Warnings and Emergency Notifications issued by UC Berkeley during calendar years 2022-2025, with a brief description of the means or media used to disseminate the notices; A copy of all of UC Berkeley’s policies and procedures related to timely warnings and emergency notifications, maintenance of a daily crime log, and emergency response notifications and evacuation policies that were in place at the time of the protests; A copy of the post-event response assessment; Copies of any Memoranda of Understanding, Interagency Agreements, or other written arrangements, instructions, or procedures between UC Berkeley’s Police Department and Berkeley Police Department or other state or local enforcement agencies; A list of all contracted services engaged for event safety and security, including contact names, email addresses and phone numbers; and Copies of all campus, patrol, and/or sector maps (with legends) utilized by the UC Berkeley Police Department, any contract security entity, and/or the university’s real estate office. The Clery Act requires colleges and universities receiving federal student aid to annually disseminate a public Annual Security Report to employees and students, which must include statistics of campus crime and details about the efforts taken to improve campus safety, including timely issuance of campus alerts and safety procedures to the campus community. FSA is responsible for enforcement of the Clery Act and may undertake an investigation of a specific incident or conduct a program review that examines systemic challenges with complying with the law. The Department may fine institutions of higher education that have violated the Clery Act and may require them to make policy changes to come into compliance with the law.