Gopal Balakrishnan, a tenured professor in the humanities division at UC Santa Cruz, has been fired after a months-long investigation into complaints of misconduct, the university confirmed to BuzzFeed News. The decision arrived after mounting pressure from students on campus.

Last year, a UC Santa Cruz investigation found that Balakrishnan broke the school’s sexual harassment policy when he had oral sex with an undergraduate student without her consent when she was drunk, in 2013. The former student, Anneliese Harlander, filed a complaint with the school last spring, triggering a formal investigation into Balakrishnan’s conduct.

At least three other complaints against Balakrishnan had also been filed with the university’s Title IX office, which handles issues of gender equity under a federal law meant to prevent sex discrimination.

“The misconduct, confirmed through our investigation and adjudication process, harmed the complainants, and that trauma rippled through our campus and university system,” said UC Santa Cruz spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason, in an email to BuzzFeed News.

"This is the only instance the Regents have dismissed a UCSC tenured faculty member in the last 20 years," said University of California Office of the President spokesperson Andrew Gordon, in an email to BuzzFeed News.

Balakrishnan was a tenured Marxist historian at UC Santa Cruz. He had been on paid leave since fall 2017 and was suspended without pay on Aug. 15 this year, according to a letter sent by UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Cynthia Larive to Harlander, and confirmed by Hernandez-Jason.

Balakrishnan’s case prompted growing campus demonstrations after it was made public in a BuzzFeed News report last year. Previously, rumors about his behavior toward students had sparked a Me Too–style campaign that split the campus community and led some to condemn the activism as “vigilante tactics.”

The Regents of the University of California voted on Sept. 19 to dismiss Balakrishnan, agreeing with Larive’s recommendation as well as that of UC President Janet Napolitano, Larive wrote.

“Respondent Balakrishnan’s behavior towards you was unwelcome, deeply harmed you, and interfered with your work prospects. The harm to you, alone, is sufficient to sustain the discipline against Respondent Balakrishnan,” Larive wrote in the letter, sent to Harlander on Monday. “Respondent Balakrishnan’s misconduct was not justified by the Ethical Principles found in the Faculty Code of Conduct and resulted in real damage to the University’s ability to carry out its mission and central functions."

“I’m grateful, though at the same time, there needs to be more that is done. Firing him is not enough of an action,” Harlander told BuzzFeed News. “I think that the university needs to ensure that their systems are drastically changed to ensure that this does not happen again, because Gopal Balakrishan is not the only one at that university or in the UC system that is a sexual predator. And there are many people who know that.”

In past comments to journalists, Balakrishnan has denied wrongdoing. His lawyer Jamie Dupree previously told BuzzFeed News that the university “botched” its response to student activism involving her client. Balakrishnan and Dupree have not responded to a request for comment for this story.

“It is rare for a university professor to be fired,” Kristina Larsen, an attorney who advised some of the complainants through the Title IX steps, told BuzzFeed News. “I’m not at all surprised that the university fired him but I can’t help think about how much damage had to be done to the individuals before it happened. This only happened because a group of coordinated activist students forced it to happen.”

