UC Berkeley has agreed to bar student groups from restricting Zionist speakers in order to settle a lawsuit by two Jewish groups. The university has also agreed to pay $1 million in legal fees.
The Brandeis Center claimed in the suit that UC Berkeley failed to respond to antisemitic harassment in the wake of pro-Palestinian protests in 2023, The Daily Cal reports.
UC Berkeley also agreed to mandatory antisemitism and anti-discrimination training for students, faculty and staff, as well as conducting an annual campus student life survey that includes questions for Jewish and Israeli students.
“This settlement reflects UC Berkeley’s long-standing values and objectives when it comes to combatting abhorrent antisemitic expression, harassment and discrimination when it occurs on the Berkeley campus,” said campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof, who also affirmed the campus’s practice of rejecting calls for boycotts and divestment from Israel.
In a message sent to the law school, Dean Erwin Chemerinsky said that students may “choose speakers based on their views” but cannot have bylaws that ban specific types of speakers, the Los Angeles Times reported.