The U.S. Department of Education’s office of Federal Student Aid has started a focused review of the University of California, Berkeley after a violent protest took place at a Turning Point USA event on campus on November 10, 2025. The investigation will determine if UC Berkeley failed to comply with the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act, which requires colleges and universities receiving federal student aid to follow certain campus safety and security requirements.
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon stated, “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.” She added, “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 previously faced penalties under the Clery Act. In 2020, it was fined $2.4 million for misclassifying over one thousand crimes and failing to maintain adequate public crime logs. As part of a settlement agreement at that time, UC Berkeley agreed to train its Campus Security Authorities properly, update safety procedures and forms, submit revised policies, and provide updated crime statistics for oversight by the Department.
As part of this new review process following the recent incident, Federal Student Aid has asked UC Berkeley for several documents within 30 days. These include copies of their Annual Security Reports from 2025 (and any revisions), detailed records showing all reported crimes from 2022-2024 organized by offense type, lists of arrests or disciplinary referrals related to weapons or substance violations included in their statistical disclosures for 2025, police activity logs from recent years, daily crime logs covering four calendar years through 2025, records relating to timely warnings or emergency notifications issued during that period (including how they were communicated), relevant policies in effect during the protests concerning alerts and emergency response protocols, assessments conducted after the event ended, agreements between university police and local law enforcement agencies regarding cooperation or procedures at such events; lists identifying contracted services engaged for event security; as well as patrol maps used by university police or private contractors.
Under federal law—the Clery Act—colleges must annually publish an accessible security report with details about reported campus crimes along with information about steps taken toward improving safety measures such as alert systems or evacuation plans for employees and students. Enforcement authority lies with Federal Student Aid within the Department; it can launch investigations into specific incidents or broader reviews where compliance issues are suspected. Institutions found violating these rules may face fines or be required to make changes in policy.
