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Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Sexual Harassment/Assault Audit Released

The California State Auditor released a report on sexual harassment/assault policies at CSU and UC.  The report 100+ page report was based on audits of two CSU campuses and two UC campuses, Berkeley and UCLA.

In an earlier post, we indicated that there were concerns about how Academic Senate policies covering faculty discipline would interact with sexual harassment/assault policies as prescribed by federal regulations.  See http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2014/06/will-due-process-for-faculty-be.html. The State Auditor report doesn't shed light on those concerns.

In their comments on the Auditor's report and recommendations, both UC President Napolitano and UCLA Chancellor Block expressed a general concern about a need for "flexibility" on campuses in handling sexual harassment/assault complaints, training, etc.  The Auditor's report disagreed.  You will find reference to this dispute towards the end of the report.  (See below for links.)

Members of the UCLA community will have received an email today from Chancellor Block concerning the report.  If you didn't, the text is below:
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To the Campus Community:

Today the office of the California State Auditor released its report on sexual harassment and sexual violence at selected California universities. The safety and welfare of our students, faculty and staff are our top priorities at UCLA, and our commitment to this is evident in the wide range of programs and services we provide to educate our community about sexual-assault prevention and to care for those who have been harmed. 

We thank the California State Auditor for reviewing our programs, policies and procedures that address sexual harassment and sexual violence. The report’s recommendations to UCLA center on training and communications, and we will evaluate them carefully before responding in greater detail at the time of the 60-day status update. UCLA also looks forward to participating in the new systemwide task force to oversee the University of California’s work to combat sexual violence, which was announced last week by President Janet Napolitano. The task force will allow all UC campuses to work together to develop and share best practices for preventing, investigating and responding to sexual violence.

UCLA is committed to being a leader in training, communication and resource development to protect our campus community from sexual harassment and sexual violence. I am grateful to the many professionals at UCLA who work tirelessly to ensure that our policies and procedures in this area are as innovative and effective as possible.

Sincerely,
Gene D. Block
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The chancellor's email doesn't mention the "flexibility" issue or provide links to the report.  So we provide the links below.

You can find the report at:

https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/summary/2013-124
and
https://www.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2013-124.pdf


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