UC San Diego employed staff to attend student protests while posing as students during the 2024-25 academic year, filing after-action reports with campus police that identified participants by full name, The UCSD Guardian first reported Monday, Oct. 19.
The employees, called "community specialists," worked for the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life. The Students' Civil Liberties Union, San Diego (SCLU) obtained the reports through a California Public Records Act request and provided them to The Guardian.
Patricia Mahaffey, associate vice chancellor for student affairs, confirmed the reports existed but denied they contained identifying information. The Guardian's review of four reports found they named organizers and speakers, recorded their remarks and estimated crowd sizes. The university's Committee on Academic Freedom reached the same conclusion in a March 2026 memo, writing that the reports included full names despite assurances they did not.
SCLU President Aryan Dixit told The Guardian that supervisors directed specialists to attend events without disclosing they were staff. The community specialist role has since been eliminated due to budget constraints, according to Mahaffey. The Guardian reported it could not verify whether similar monitoring continues.
The Guardian's full investigation includes details on specific events monitored, faculty concerns about the program and its implications for student privacy.
