The University of California, Berkeley, is investigating 26 cases of sexual harassment and sexual violence after a week in which three prominent faculty and staff members either resigned or were fired over sexual harassment charges.

The slew of cases at the prestigious university has prompted mounting complaints from faculty who are criticizing administrators for failing to take swift and meaningful disciplinary action.

“Essentially, there’s been an attempt to cover [harassment] up,” said Michael Burawoy, a professor of sociology and co-chair of the Berkeley Faculty Association. “These cover-ups are an attempt to keep the university pure and attractive to parents who send their children here and donors who send their money.”



“Sexual harassment is a problem in every workplace in the United States,” said Leslie Salzinger, a professor of gender and women’s studies at Berkeley. “But I find the responses absolutely confounding and shocking. The administration seems to have more compassion and more concern for the future of the harasser than for that of the survivor.”

Berkeley’s spokesperson Janet Gilmore said senior campus leaders met with experts on sexual harassment to discuss strategies for reform on Monday. Gilmore also provided the figure for ongoing investigations at the university, 17 of which involve sexual harassment and nine of which involve sexual violence.

“The university is absolutely committed to doing all that we can to combat sexual harassment and sexual violence on this campus. Regarding student-on-student cases, we have made a number of significant improvements ... and we know there is more to do,” Gilmore said. “On the faculty and staff front, we know that we must do better and we will do better.”

On Monday, the school began termination proceedings against an assistant coach with the men’s basketball team who was found to have violated the school’s sexual harassment policy. Yann Hufnagel, the coach, dismissed the charges on Twitter, writing: “My time to exonerate myself of a fruitless claim by a reporter will come.”

But according to the university’s report, released Tuesday, Hufnagel admitted to the school’s investigator that he made a “sexual advance” to a female reporter, whose name was withheld, believing that there was “1000% acceptance on her part,” and later tried to “trick her into going upstairs” to his apartment.

The report concludes that Hufnagel’s “conduct was objectively intimidating, hostile, or offensive – repeatedly propositioning Complainant for sex and, in some cases, suggesting that her participation in sex with [Hufnagel] would grant her greater access to parts of the sports world in [his] control”.

Hufnagel’s firing followed the resignation on 10 March of Sujit Choudhry, the dean of UC Berkeley’s law school, over charges that he sexually harassed his executive assistant, Tyann Sorrell.

Initially, the administration reduced Choudhry’s salary by 10% for one year as punishment. Sorrell felt that was inadequate and filed a civil suit against the university on 8 March.

After the allegations against Choudhry were made public, UC president Janet Napolitano sent letters to UC Berkeley chancellor Nicholas Dirks and all UC chancellors calling for immediate action on sexual violence and harassment, including the establishment of a “peer review” committee to approve proposed sanctions against faculty found to have engaged in sexual harassment or violence.

Napolitano also ordered that Choudhry not be allowed to return to campus, and that former vice-chancellor Graham Fleming be fired from his position at Berkeley. Fleming resigned his position as vice-chancellor for research in April 2015 due to sexual harassment allegations, but he had remained on the payroll in an administrative role until Friday.

A spokesman for Fleming told the San Francisco Chronicle that his firing was a “deeply troubling example of the university punishing an innocent and dedicated leader solely to appear to be politically correct”.

Several faculty compared the recent incidents to the university’s handling of harassment claims made against Geoffrey Marcy, a prominent astronomer who was found by the school to have repeatedly sexually harassed students over the course of a decade. Marcy did not receive significant discipline for his behavior, but he resigned in October 2015 after the misconduct was reported by BuzzFeed.

Members of the Berkeley Faculty Association have submitted a petition to request a “special meeting” of the Academic Senate to “have an open discussion of the university’s handling of sexual harassment, both administrative failures and procedural obstacles.” The Academic Senate represents faculty members in the shared governance of the university. The meeting will likely be held in late March.

Celeste Langan, a professor of English and co-chair of the BFA, expressed concern that the university was influenced “less by ethical than by reputational motives”, and added that the school needs better protocols for helping students and staff report harassment and discrimination.

In 2014, students at Berkeley filed federal complaints against the school for failing to adequately investigate complaints of sexual assault.

One immediate action that Napolitano called for in her letter on Friday was for senior leaders in the university to complete sexual assault and sexual harassment training. The school did not immediately respond to a request for information on how many staff have not completed such training.

Those trainings are “pathetic”, Salzinger said. “They treat sexual harassment as a risk problem that they have to insulate themselves from, legally.”

One professor of political science, Wendy Brown, suggested that the university administration might need some additional training of its own about equality.

“This is not a safety issue; it is an equality issue,” Brown wrote in an email to a faculty list-serv that she provided to the Guardian.

“By law, sexual harassment violates the rights of students, staff and faculty to an education or workplace where they are treated as equals.

“That this ... is not understood by the administration makes me skeptical of its capacity to rectify its handling of this issue. Perhaps a very different kind of campus education about sexual harassment is in order.”

If you have information about this story contact: julia.wong@theguardian.com