After one of its students was seen on video punching a woman at a protest in Berkeley, Calif., the president of California State University at Stanislaus said on Monday it had opened an investigation.
Ellen Junn, the president, did not mention the specifics of who or what was being investigated in a written statement, but she did say the university had received news of a “serious incident” that possibly involved one of its students.
“The university takes these allegations seriously, and as president, I have initiated an immediate investigation both on campus and at Berkeley to verify and confirm details of this incident to determine next steps to resolve this situation,” Ms. Junn wrote.
The video of the Berkeley clashes shows Nathan Damigo, a student at Stanislaus State and a white supremacist, hitting a woman in the face and knocking her to the ground, according to The Modesto Bee. The newspaper reached out to Mr. Damigo, but hadn’t received a response as of Sunday.
The Los Angeles Times reported that violence erupted in Berkeley this past weekend after supporters of President Trump rallied against counterprotesters, leaving 21 arrested and nearly a dozen injured.
Mr. Damigo founded Identity Evropa, a group whose recruiting at higher-education institutions has disturbed some academics. The group is also mentioned in a report by the Anti-Defamation League that concludes that white supremacists are targeting college campuses.
Janice Curtin, a spokeswoman for Stanislaus State, in Turlock, Calif., said she could not name which student was being investigated, but she did say the institution’s police department had been in touch with Berkeley law-enforcement officials.
Correction (4/18/2017, 9:30 a.m.): This post originally misspelled the last name of a spokeswoman for California State University at Stanislaus. She is Janice Curtin, not Janice Curtain. The post has been updated to reflect this correction.
