You can go to our
Newsletters.
Or search for a word here:
Harassment and Institutional Practices
Remember the dean of the UCB law school accused of harassment? In 2002 there was a good deal of publicity in Bay Area newspapers about this issue and UC's sexual harassment policies. The plaintiff's lawyer said in 2002, "Their policies and procedures on sexual harassment are minimal. They don't distribute them. They have failed utterly." (See Fall 2002 Newsletter.) At the spring meeting this year, WAGE heard that the dean already had a reputation for harassment, but no one on the hiring committee had bothered to ask.
Whether this is true or not in this particular case-WAGE members can attest that people known to be harassers on one campus have been hired on others. One factor in a hiring committee's reluctance to ask may be that sexual harassment may still be perceived as a part of personal, rather than professional, behavior. Somehow embezzlement (which is illegal) might be considered as contributing to "poor management style" but sexual harassment (which is also illegal) may still be considered to belong to some other category.
Recommendations for institutions include education of employees, but do not yet seem to include concern for past history of new hires. In a December 19, 2003 article about insurance costs for colleges, the Chronicle of Higher Education states: "When it comes to doing their part to thwart potential lawsuits, more and more colleges are expected to take sexual-harassment and discrimination training for employees seriously-with some institutions already hiring people specifically for the job."
-wage@wage.org-