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Sexual harassment at UCB law school

The dean of UCB´s Boalt Hall resigned after he was accused of sexually harassing a female law student. Although the incident on which the complaint was based occurred in 2000, the student filed the complaint after she graduated, due to her concern about retaliation. As the experiences of WAGE members have shown, such a concern is not misplaced.

A San Francisco lawyer commented about the dean´s resignation, "The fact that he stepped down speaks volumes. If there´s no smoke, there´s no reason to jump out of the .re." The former student may sue the university if it does not change its policies to comply with state and federal laws concerning sexual harassment. Her lawyer said, "Their policies and procedures on sexual harassment are minimal. They don´t distribute them. They have failed utterly."

UCB has put a "fact sheet" on sexual harassment policies at: www.berkeley. edu/news/media/releases/2002/12/05_harassment.htm. Part of it says, "At the annual retreat for deans and chairs of departments sponsored by the executive vice chancellor and provost, information on the university´s policies and procedures, including sexual harassment, is distributed."

Law professor Linda Hamilton Krieger, who has been at Boalt since 1996, said, "I´ve never gotten a document that contains the university´s policy." Moreover, the California Education Code requires a university to take "affirmative steps to prevent harassment," said Krieger, who teaches employment discrimination law. If UC is expecting deans to distribute and enforce sexual harassment policies and procedures, perhaps it is mistaken.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle 11/29/02, 12/2/02, 12/3/02, 12/8/02 

	"I must be honest and tell you that I have no rational explanation for the data on 
	UC´s mathematics hires.
	In mathematics, UC hired 5.4% female faculty, the national Ph.D. pool is 22.1%, UC graduates 
	18.4% female Ph.Ds., our comparable institutions graduate 19.6% women Ph.D.s and even the 
	postdoctoral pool (which in mathematics is highly competitive and is an indication of potential 
	for future funding) has 13.2% females in it. Issues such as the attractiveness of non-academic 
	careers to women may be a factor here as many industries have a current need for first-rate 
	mathematicians such as our own graduates, but I know of no adequate data to address this right 
	now." ‹M. R. C. Greenwood, www.ucop.edu/acadadv/testimonyindex.html


Editorial comment: Attractiveness of industry to women doesn´t seem a likely explanation. The National Research Council study From Scarcity to Visibility: Gender Differences in the Careers of Doctoral Scientists and Engineers (available as an "open book" at www.nap.edu) found that in 1995 the difference between the percent of men and the percent of women with Ph.D.s in the mathematical sciences employed in industry was 7.7 (See p. 110)

-wage@wage.org-