UCLA features seven times on list of sexual misconduct claims at universities
Women have been speaking up about harassment and assault encountered in academia
Karen Kelsky, who provides career consulting and advice on The Professor Is In, created a public Google document called "Sexual Harassment In the Academy" for college women to share their experiences of sexual assault and harassment.
Since its creation last month, the spreadsheet has over 2,000 reports. Seven of the reports describe events that allegedly took place at UCLA, placing us at the 25th highest on the doc. The accounts were submitted by undergraduate students, graduate students, and tenure-track professors alike, ranging from STEM fields to humanities.
One woman claims she went to a professor's house for dinner, expecting a large group of people to be there. In fact, it was just the two of them, and later in the evening the professor came out in a bathrobe.
"I quickly got up, let him know that this could never happen again and walked out the front door. In retrospect, I feel terrible that I didn't actually report this. It was more than 25 years ago, and I know he was doing similar things to other people," the report reads.
Another woman says she experienced more serious abuse, including "rape, physical intimidation, [and] sexualized comments" and that there were "multiple cases of each."
While most of the allegations were not reported, it is clear that they took a toll on each survivor's career and well-being. The same woman writes, "I did not finish my degree and am no longer in academia."
One woman experienced repeated cornering from a professor and mentor of hers, who was married and much older. She wrote, "I had mental breakdowns daily for over a month. I had to increase my antidepressants and am dealing with low-level PTSD. I still go through very dark periods related to this."
In the cases that were reported, it is claimed that little was done to reprimand the perpetrator or provide consequences for their actions. One woman was left only with an "informal agreement" along with the side effects of experiencing a traumatic event.