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Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Senate Role or Senate Rolled?

Of late, there have been a number of high-profile cases in which faculty are accused of sexual harassment/assault and some penalty is announced. News accounts seem never to mention any Academic Senate role in the investigation or in the outcome of such "Title 9" cases. The latest example is a case at Berkeley:

http://www.dailycal.org/2018/08/20/uc-berkeley-suspends-campus-architecture-professor-sexually-harassing-graduate-student/

Isn't the Senate supposed to have some role in faculty misconduct investigations? Granted, it's a sensitive topic and maybe no one wants to touch it. But we'll touch it here and ask the question. Where is the Senate?

UPDATE: Inside Higher Ed today mentions a Senate recommendation for a lesser penalty in the Berkeley case than was actually imposed: https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2018/08/21/uc-berkeley-suspends-professor-harassment
Yours truly remains concerned about the Senate being on the periphery of these cases. The same issues concerning due process that have surfaced in student-on-student cases arise in faculty-on-student cases.

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