UC Berkeley Professor Nezar AlSayyad has been suspended for three years without pay for engaging in a pattern of sexual harassment and abuse of faculty power, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. AlSayyad, a tenured architecture professor and Middle East scholar, sexually harassed his former student, Eva Hagberg Fisher, from 2012 to 2014.
After an independent investigation determined he was guilty of inappropriate and manipulative behavior, AlSayyad was removed from teaching courses but continued to receive a $211,000-a-year salary. He was also allowed to remain serving on academic committees and continued to advise students. Hagberg Fisher agreed not to sue the school, instead agreeing to an $80,000 settlement.
In November 2016, after the investigation's findings were first reported, protests erupted at the school with Graduate students angered by UC Berkeley's handling of the situation and their lack of transparency. Hagberg Fisher wrote a viral op-ed (and must-read) for the the New York Times, which also helped draw attention to the case and urged the school towards action.
After facing a hearing in the faculty senate that involved four months of deliberation, it was recommended that AlSayyad be suspended for one year based on his sexual harassment allegations. Campus Chancellor Carol Christ, however, decided to triple the recommended suspension due to his additional abuse of faculty powers.
While on suspension, AlSayyad will be without pay and will be barred from non-public areas of the campus. He will no longer be allowed to supervise new graduate students or participate in other activities related to the school. His lawyer Dan Siegel has said they are considering challenging the chancellor's decision to override the faculty senate's recommendation in favor of a harsher sentence.
In recent years, Berkeley has dealt with a series of sexual-harassment cases involving instructors across different departments and in one instance, even involving the dean of their esteemed law school. This led the school to changing its procedure, introducing new policies back in 2017.
The university’s disciplinary decision for this case has been part of a two-year long process, whose secrecy and uncertainty has been criticized by Hagberg Fisher and the many students who feel the school's inaction has put their academic careers at a disadvantage. Upon seeing the news this morning, Hagberg Fisher remarked in a tweet that she hopes "this sets a precedent for large-scale institutional change, and starts to hold abusers of power accountable."
No salary for 3 years is an "interesting" strategy. They're saying we won't fire you (that would be messy), but we won't feed you either. I also wonder how they delineate non-public spaces. If that includes parts of the library, it would kill research.
Termination by proxy.
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"$211,000-a-year salary." No wonder all the idiots that couldn't hack it in real life go teach.
you'd think with that much coin, he could afford a better moustache.
No criminal charges?
Wonder why they can’t can him. He’s going to continue to diminish the reputation of the program, even if suspended for 3 years.
The creeper mustache...
No salary for 3 years is an "interesting" strategy. They're saying we won't fire you (that would be messy), but we won't feed you either. I also wonder how they delineate non-public spaces. If that includes parts of the library, it would kill research.
Termination by proxy.
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