Investigation of Former Regents Chair Kieffer Ends With Decision in His Favor

The San Francisco Chronicle seems to have the most detailed account of the investigation and access to the actual (redacted) investigation report. Whether that report will be released to the public - maybe at the July meeting of the Board of Regents - remains to be seen. Yours truly has gone back over the closed sessions of the May meeting and has found no trace of it (although some categories in closed sessions possibly could have included it.) In any case, it would be interesting to know how the report wound up in the hands of the Chronicle.

Excerpts from the Chronicle summary:

An investigator hired by the University of California has rejected a doctoral student’s allegation that UC Regent George Kieffer sexually harassed her by repeatedly resting his hand on her upper thigh during a dinner for student leaders in San Francisco six years ago, The Chronicle has learned. The investigator, a Walnut Creek attorney, found that although Kieffer sat next to the student and could have placed his hand on her leg, the “preponderance of evidence” fails to show that he did.

“The finding of the independent investigator was really not a surprise to me given that I knew the allegation was completely false from the outset,” said Kieffer, an attorney and last year’s chairman of the regents. The claim by Rebecca Ora, a doctoral student in film and digital media at UC Santa Cruz, became public at a dramatic regents meeting in November when Ora faced the regents, accused Kieffer of touching her leg in 2014, and demanded: “George Kieffer, get the f— off this board.”

“I’m frustrated. I’m angry. I’m hurt,” Ora told The Chronicle after learning the outcome. “It’s abuse of power. I don’t believe he should be on a board deciding policy and outcomes of others’ sexually abusive actions,” a duty of the regents...

Issued May 12, the 52-page report is redacted of names and identifying details. The investigator, Natasha Baker, advises administrators on employment issues and student affairs, and counsels boards on contracts and high-level dismissals. Ora and student leaders feared the regents would run the inquiry, policing themselves. On May 17, Suzanne Taylor, UC’s director of Title IX, the federal law barring sex discrimination, wrote Ora to say that she and UC’s top lawyer ran it, not the regents. As such, the regents “had no say in the outcome, nor the opportunity to review the investigator’s report before it was final.” ...

Full article at https://www.sfchronicle.com/education/article/A-University-of-California-regent-a-sex-15323346.php

The rest of the article summarizes the report and raises credibility issues about the complaint. One of the issues discussed involved the decision by Ms. Ora to publicize the complaint during the public comments section of the November 13, 2019 meeting of the Regents. You can hear that segment at:
https://archive.org/details/1academicstudentaffairsam111319/0-Board+AM+11-13-19.wma (minute 8:38 to 12:26).

Kieffer has an interestiing background as an attorney and a composer. You can hear a recent composition at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLql5xoM3yY. Kieffer was appointed to the Regents in 2009 by Governor Schwarzenegger to a term ending in 2021.