Two high-profile moves this week highlighted campuses under political and legal pressure: the University of California, Berkeley suspended an electrical engineering lecturer without pay for alleged in-class political advocacy tied to a hunger strike, while the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission opened a claims process tied to a $21 million settlement with Columbia University over alleged antisemitic harassment. Berkeley’s provost said the lecturer misused class time for political advocacy and violated a Regents policy limiting off-topic political discussion; the lecturer plans to appeal and criticized the timing as politically motivated. Separately, the EEOC launched an online portal for Columbia employees who say they experienced harassment between October 2023 and July 2025 as part of the settlement, which the university resolved to avoid protracted litigation. Together the actions illustrate intensifying federal and campus scrutiny of speech, faculty conduct and workplace harassment — pressures that will shape institutional policies on academic freedom, employee protections, and Title VII/EEOC investigations.