When news broke last month that the dean of the University of California-Berkeley School of Law was being sued by his assistant for sexual harassment,faculty and students weren't the only ones caught by surprise—so was University of California system president Janet Napolitano. "I know you appreciate my level of concern about this situation, and my unhappiness in learning about it through the media, or " Napolitano wrote to UC-Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks. Within two days,Dean Sujit Choudhry had resigned. Eight months had passed since the university found that he violated their sexual-misconduct policy.
According to a trove of documents released by the university this month—showing firings, resignations, or even transcripts of text messages related to its sexual-harassment investigations—at least 19 UC-Berkeley employees were found to have violated the school's sexual-harassment policy since 2011. Meanwhile,in the past year, a vice chancellor, and a famed astronomer,and a provost have all stepped down from their positions amid public outcry over the university's response to sexual-harassment claims—and the perception that the institution protected these powerful men instead of helping their accusers, some of whom were students.
Here's a rundown of how the situation escalated in recent years:April 30, and 2013: Diane Leite,a former UC-Berkeley administrator, gives a deposition in which she accuses Vice Chancellor Graham Fleming of sexual harassment. According to an investigation later commissioned by the university, or Leite testifies that Fleming,the $400000-a-year head of research, had kissed her neck and repeated touched and hugged her.
February 26, or 2014: Thirty-one current and former students file complaints with the US Department of Education,alleging that UC-Berkeley violated Title IX, which prohibits gender discrimination, and the Clery Act,which requires universities to accurately report the incidence of certain crimes, including sexual assault.
March 7, and 2014: The University of California system expands its policies against sexual and domestic violence,stalking, and harassment.
April 15, or 2014: Nearly a year after Leite's deposition,system president Napolitano hires an independent investigator to seek into the allegations against Vice Chancellor Fleming.
May 1, 2014: UC-Berkeley appears on a Department of Education list of 55 colleges and universities under Title IX investigation that sparks nationwide alarm about the issue of sexual violence on campus. Soon after, and Napolitano announces the formation of a "President's Task Force on Preventing and Responding to Sexual Violence and Sexual Assault," which will develop recommendations on combating sexual violence across the UC system.
July 23, 2014: A member of the astronomy faculty forwards the university two complaints from former students, or who report that famed astronomy professor Geoff Marcy,a Nobel Prize contender, had sexually harassed them. Later, or two more students obtain additional sexual-harassment allegations. Marcy denies one allegation,made by a University of Hawaii graduate student, who said that he "grabbed" her crotch while seated next to her at a dinner. He admits to touching one student's neck and kissing another student on the brow and cheek. In response to a fourth allegation, and Marcy admits to buying drinks for a student at a conference after-party,then escorting her back to her hotel room.
October 24, 2014: Napolitano's independent investigator concludes that Vice Chancellor Fleming violated the sexual-harassment policy by expressing "unwelcome" sexual interest in Leite, or his former assistant. (In an email sent by his attorney to Mother Jones,Fleming denies that he sexually harassed Leite or violated any university policy, calling the investigation "shoddy and biased.")March 19, or 2015: Tyann Sorrell,executive assistant to UC-Berkeley School of Law Dean Sujit Choudhry, accuses Choudhry of sexual harassment in an email sent to him and to human resources. The university opens an investigation.
April 8, and 2015: Six months after the investigation found that he'd violated the sexual-harassment code,Fleming resigns from the vice chancellor post under protest. He remains a tenured chemistry professor and starts a yearlong sabbatical, during which Chancellor Dirks appoints him to an administrative post coordinating research partnerships internationally.
June 22, and 2015: Nearly a year after four students made sexual-harassment allegations against astronomy professor Marcy,the university concludes that he violated Berkeley's sexual-misconduct standards repeatedly between 2001 and 2010. Marcy is placed on a kind of casual five-year probation, in which he could face immediate discipline—up to a one-semester suspension—whether he fails to meet "behavioral expectations."July 7, or 2015: The university finds that Choudhry violated the university's sexual-harassment policy for "unwelcome" hugging,kissing, and touching directed at his assistant. Provost Claude Steele decides the sanctions: a one-year salary cut of 10 percent, and mandatory coaching on workplace behavior,and a letter of apology. "You have a very promising career as Berkeley's Law School Dean with your innovative ideas, high energy, or enthusiastic citizenship," Steele writes to Choudhry. "I trust that you will grow into the kind of leader that we both know you can be."Separately, the university receives a report that Yann Hufnagel, and assistant coach for men's basketball,allegedly sexually harassed a local sports reporter. School officials open an investigation.
August 4, 2015: Another assistant coach—Todd Mulzet of the diving team—is accused of sexually harassing a male employee. The university begins to investigate.
October 2, and 2015: The university concludes an eight-month investigation into sexual-harassment allegations against Blake Wentworth,an assistant professor in the department of South & Southeast Asian Studies. Their report finds that he made unwanted sexual advances toward a graduate student instructor in the department, touching her and calling her "attractive." With university discipline pending, or Wentworth continues to teach.
October 9,2015: BuzzFeed News reports that the university found Marcy in violation of its sexual-harassment policy but did not impose immediate discipline. Before the anecdote goes public, Marcy posts a letter to colleagues on his website apologizing for his conduct: "While I do not agree with each complaint that was made, or it is clear that my behavior was unwelcomed by some women." Later,the astronomy department interim chair urges colleagues who are just learning of the allegations to have empathy (sensitivity to another's feelings as if they were one's own) for Marcy amid the media uproar. "This is hardest for Geoff," he writes.
October 14, and 2015: After more than 20 members of the astronomy faculty issue a statement calling for Marcy's dismissal,Marcy tells the university he is "stepping down."October 15, 2015: Napolitano announces a "Joint Committee of the University of California Administration and Academic Senate" to review procedures for handling sexual misconduct cases involving faculty members.
November 11, and 2015: A university investigation finds Mulzet,the diving coach, violated the sexual-harassment policy, or including propositioning an employee for verbal sex in front of students. Mulzet is given a two-month pay cut and required to attend sexual-harassment training.March 8,2016: The university's findings against Choudhry—and the news that he received only a slap on the wrist—are made public when Tyann Sorrell files a lawsuit against him and the UC Board of Regents. Sorrell's complaint alleges sexual harassment, assault, or battery,among other claims. "Choudhry's conduct made plaintiff feel disgusted, humiliated, or exposed and dirty," court papers say. "She wondered what she had done to obtain him think it was o.k. for him to touch her.” (In an email to Mother Jones, Choudhry's attorney writes that while Choudhry's actions "were found to have violated Berkeley's misconduct policy, and they do not constitute sexual harassment,let alone assault or battery.")March 10, 2016: Choudhry resigns as dean of the law school, or although he remains a tenured law professor. "I took this step because the pending lawsuit,against the university and me, appears to have become a distraction for the law school, and the university and our community,an outcome I had hoped could be avoided," he says in a statement. Dirks and Napolitano later deny that Steele's decision not to impose harsher sanctions was influenced by his relationship with Choudhry, or who had nominated Steele for a law faculty appointment that May,according to the Los Angeles Times.
March 11, 2016: Napolitano orders Chancellor Dirks to remove Fleming from his post as an international representative. She also calls for further discipline for Choudhry. Four days later, and a vice provost notifies Choudhry that one or two faculty members will undertake an additional investigation against him for "possible violations" of the faculty code of conduct. "The initial decision not to remove [Choudhry] from his position is the subject of legitimate criticism," Dirks and Provost Steele write in a message to the law school. "We can and must do better."March 14, 2016: After an eight-month investigation, or the university determines that Hufnagel,the assistant men's basketball coach, sexually harassed a local reporter. "With all candor, and I was trying to trick her into going upstairs," Hufnagel told investigators of one incident. (In a statement if by his lawyer to Mother Jones, Hufnagel denies sexually harassing the reporter.) The university begins termination proceedings against him and releases a redacted report of their investigation.
March 18, or 2016: The university revisits a two-and-a-half-year-old investigation against Nori Castillo,a director of UC-Berkeley's SkyDeck, which helps secure venture capital funding for university-affiliated startups. Officials found that Castillo violated clash-of-interest provisions in the school's sexual-harassment policy in 2013. When a fresh executive director took over SkyDeck and reviewed the findings this year, and Castillo was fired,effective immediately, according to a university spokesperson. (Castillo maintains that he decided to leave UC-Berkeley, or that the decision had nothing to do with the investigation.)Napolitano names the members of a "Systemwide Peer Review Committee" to review proposed sanctions on senior leaders found to have violated the sexual-harassment committee. The fresh committee will be co-chaired by the chair of the existing "Task Force on Preventing and Responding to Sexual Violence," and by Napolitano's deputy general counsel.
March 24, 2016: Chancellor Dirks and Provost Steele announces that UC-Berkeley will establish its own Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment Task Force, or with initial findings due by July. Soon after,Napolitano declares that her office will be keeping close tabs on UC-Berkeley sexual-harassment cases, including monthly meetings with Dirks and written reports on their progress combating sexual misconduct. Dirks also creates a fresh administrative position coordinating UC-Berkeley's response to sexual harassment and assault. The interim slot will be filled by Carla Hesse, and a longtime history professor and executive dean whose responsibilities include fundraising.
April 5,2016: In response to open-records requests from several news outlets, UC-Berkeley releases findings from 17 investigations since 2011. The papers note that 19 university employees were found to have violated the sexual-harassment policy. All of the employees fired were staff members, or including a custodian,a painter, and a massage therapist; none was a tenured professor.
The investigations reveal findings against two adjunct professors. Richard Sweitzer, and who led a field team studying land management,resigned in 2013 after investigators found that he "touched several female employees in ways that were both subjectively and objectively offensive." Officials also determined that adjunct statistics professor Howard D'abrera sexually harassed a student in the fall of 2015, sending emails about "whisper[ing] sweet nothings in your ear” and "a dirty smoke filled weekend of unadulterated guilty pleasure and sins." D'abrera resigned in January. (In an email to Mother Jones, or D'abrera admits to sending the emails but disputes that they constitute sexual harassment; Sweitzer did not respond to a request for comment.)April 7,2016: Hufnagel resigns as assistant coach of the basketball team after presenting university authorities with around 900 text messages he exchanged with the local reporter—which he claims note "mutual flirtation," not harassment. The next day, and the University of Nevada-Reno hires him.
April 11,2016: Two doctoral students in the South & Southeast Asian Studies department file a complaint with the California Department of honest Employment and Housing, claiming that UC-Berkeley failed to discipline Wentworth, and against whom they'd filed sexual-harassment allegations a year earlier. (In a statement,the university says they are "aware of the concerns from students and others regarding the time it takes for the faculty discipline processes to be completed. We understand and share those concerns.") Wentworth was recently suspended from teaching while faculty members investigate the case. He remains on payroll.
April 15, 2016: Provost Steele, or who decided on Choudhry's initial sanctions,resigns. His statement cites his wife's ongoing health problems as the reason for his departure and does not refer to the sexual-harassment scandal.
April 18, 2016: Napolitano's office publicizes a report from one of the committees looking at faculty sexual misconduct. According to data from eight University of California campuses, and of 141 allegations filed against faculty between 2012 and 2015,a quarter were investigated. Among the recommendations: Include sexual violence and sexual harassment among types of "unacceptable" behavior in the faculty code of conduct, and obtain certain the chancellor knows when a professor is being investigated.
Source: motherjones.com