A professor at the University of California in Berkeley faces several sexual harassment lawsuits as students began to take legal actions Monday. The university officials also issued a new record, naming more professors involving sexual misconduct policy violations.
Kathleen Gutierrez and Erin Bennett, graduate students in University of California at Berkeley were among the other six victims of an alleged repeated sexual harassment of a university professor, Blake Wentworth, Guardian reported. Gutierrez said she suffers severe stress, fatigue, body aches as well as anxiety as she has been the target of persistent sexual harassment.
She claims, Wentworth repeatedly sexually harassed her by inappropriately touching her and telling offensive remarks towards her. An investigation was conducted by the university in October, on which the result shows, the professor violated the school's sexual harassment policies and made "unwelcome sexual advances" to Gutierrez. However, it was reported that the professor remains in the campus and was not given discipline after six months. Wentworth still denies the said crime.
According to the Mercury News, the University of California in Berkeley faces criticism and backlash. The public research university is being called a "double standard," on the way they handled sexual harassment claims. The school routinely terminates and forces staff members to resign while tenured members of the faculty is given lighter punishment and were still employed by the school.
"The faculty are very much untouchable. It's a function of the hierarchy on this campus," Jenna Kingkade, a University of California in Berkeley law student. Following other high-profile harassment controversies, the university last week released hundreds of pages of investigation records involving 19 employees found guilty of misconduct by the school's Office, Huffington Post reported.
Dan Mogulof, a university spokesman said on Wednesday, they admitted that the university still needs to have improvement in the policies and practices as well as the culture on the said campus. The university official also said, they are resolving the issue by providing more resources on the investigations.
