Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/797496
ByJocelynGecker,Janie Har and Juliet Williams The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO An asso- ciate UCLA professor who pursued a romantic rela- tionship with a student un- til she was afraid to attend classes paid the university $7,500 in lieu of suspen- sion. At UC Irvine, a dean accused of sexually harass- ing a co-worker agreed to take a demotion and stayed on as a teacher. And at UC Santa Cruz, a professor accused of sex- ually assaulting a female student after a wine-tast- ing trip resigned before he could be fired. The Uni- versity of California later agreed to pay his accuser $1.15 million. The cases, among a trove of confidential files released last week by UC officials, show that the same lack of transparency and lax dis- cipline that critics com- plained about at UC Berke- ley in recent years also oc- curred at UC's nine other campuses. In a rare look at the han- dling of sexual misconduct allegations in one of the na- tion's largest university sys- tems, the cases show disci- pline was meted out incon- sistently. The files cover 112 cases from January 2013 to April 2016 at nine cam- puses, excluding Berkeley, which separately released documents last year. The Associated Press scoured hundreds of pages, many of which UC offi- cials redacted in whole or in part citing privacy rea- sons. While the employees who were investigated in- cluded cafeteria workers and administrative employ- ees, the AP examined cases involving the most promi- nent figures on campuses: the faculty. The UC President's Of- fice said faculty accounted for a quarter of the more than a hundred employ- ees found to have violated sexual misconduct policies over the nearly three-year period but declined to spec- ify those cases in particu- lar. The AP was able to ver- ify at least 21 of the cases involving faculty members, and found: — In several instances, rumors about the accused swirled for years before anything was done. — Two were fired and one instructor's contract was not renewed. — Two people agreed to temporarily forgo merit pay increases, one took a 10 per- cent pay cut. — Six faculty members resigned or retired from their universities before in- vestigations were complete, punishment decided, or as part of a settlement. At UCLA, for example, now-retired French Studies professor Eric Gans was ac- cused of writing some 300 poems to a female graduate student that created a "sex- ually hostile environment," and pursuing the student while serving as her ad- viser, according to a De- cember 2013 investigation. Gans denied wrongdo- ing but signed a settle- ment with the UC Regents agreeing to resign and be- come professor emeritus. He maintains an office on campus but is prohibited from teaching, mentoring or advising students. Gans did not respond to requests for comment sent to his uni- versity email. The univer- sity declined to comment on specific cases. The documents were re- leased in response to pub- lic records requests filed by the AP and other news or- ganizations nearly a year ago, after sexual harass- ment cases at UC Berke- ley involving a former law school dean, a prominent astronomer and a vice chancellor became public. Berkeley was criticized for initially allowing the se- nior faculty to keep their jobs. They ultimately re- signed under pressure. In response, the UC sys- tem overhauled procedures for investigating and disci- plining faculty members in such cases. All students and employees must now undergo mandatory sexual assault training and there is a single system-wide Ti- tle IX coordinator and peer review committee to deter- mine sanctions for senior faculty. Previously, it was up to individual campuses to impose sanctions on their own staff. Experts on sexual vio- lence have long called on universities to be more transparent about cases in- volving sexual misconduct. Universities should regu- larly disclose results of in- vestigations, even if names and details are redacted, said Noreen Farrell, ex- ecutive director of Equal Rights Advocates. "At some point, the in- stitution has to choose be- tween protecting its reputa- tion and protecting its stu- dents. Schools can't have its cake and eat it too," she said. "They have to figure out a way to show that zero tolerance policies are not all talk." In the latest documents, UC officials said personal identities and intimate per- sonal details were omitted for privacy reasons but also because those disclosures would "not shed light" on how the university system has fulfilled its responsi- bility to investigate and re- spond to sexual miscon- duct cases. The investiga- tions are administrative, and not criminal, in nature. In one case, administra- tors at UC Santa Cruz were criticized for their handling of the case of a student who accused Latin Studies pro- fessor Hector Perla of rap- ing her during a wine-tast- ing outing in June 2015. Perla has not commented publicly, but he told investi- gators that the sex was con- sensual and the student was not impaired. RECORDS UC s ex ua l mi sc on du ct fi le s show faculty resigned, retired DAMIANDOVARGANES—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE Janet Napolitano, President of the University of California, le , and California Attorney General Kamala Harris, right, listen to sexual assault prevention activist Savannah Badalich, a UCLA student and founder of 7000in Solidarity: A Campaign Against Sexual Assault in Los Angeles. By Marilynn Marchione The Associated Press For the first time, doctors have tied infection with the Zika virus to possible new heart problems in adults. The evidence so far is only in eight people in Ven- ezuela, and is not enough to prove a link. It's also too soon to know how of- ten this might be happen- ing. The biggest trouble the mosquito-borne virus has been causing is for preg- nant women and their fe- tuses. "I think as awareness in- creases, the cases will start to show up more," said Dr. Karina Gonzalez Carta, a Mayo Clinic research fel- low working in Venezuela who investigated the heart cases. She discussed them on anAmericanCollegeofCar- diology press call, ahead of a presentation Saturday at the group's meeting in Washington. Many people infected with Zika will have no or only mild symptoms, such as fever,aches,anitchyrash orredeyes.Butthevirushas caused an epidemic of birth defectsintheCaribbeanand South America, notably ba- bies with abnormally small heads and brains. A report last June in the International Journal of Cardiology describes heart problems that have been seen from other viruses spread by mosquitoes, such as West Nile and ones that cause yellow fever, dengue fever and chikungunya. Doctors have been watching for the same from Zika, and "we were sur- prised at the severity of the findings" in the Venezuela cases, Carta said. She studied nine pa- tients, ages 30 to 64, treated at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Caracas who developed heart symptoms such as palpitations, short- ness of breath and fatigue an average of 10 days after typical Zika symptoms be- gan. Only one had any prior heart-related problem — high blood pressure that was under control with medications — and all had lab tests confirming Zika infection. They were given extensive heart tests and were studied for an aver- age of six months, starting last July. HEALTH The Associated Press OROVILLE Oroville Dam's heavily damaged main spillway is expected to re- sume releasing water next week as levels continue to rise in the reservoir. The Sacramento Bee re- ports the state Department of Water Resources says the battered concrete spill- way is likely to begin wa- ter releases around March 17 when the level in Lake Oroville is expected to have risen to 865 feet. That's well below the point at which water would flow over the emergency spillway. The problems at Lake Oroville began early last month when officials dis- covered a massive crater in the main concrete spillway used to release water dur- ing wet winter months. Nearly 200,000 people were ordered to evacuate from parts of three counties when experts discovered se- vere erosion and feared it could cause the collapse of a concrete weir holding wa- ter in the lake. WATER Da maged main spillway of Oroville Dam to reopen next week The Associated Press HONOLULU A Hawaiian Airlines flight from Las Vegas had to divert to Los Angeles after a passenger complained about the cost of a blanket. The airline confirmed that flight HA7 from Las Vegas was about an hour into its trip Wednesday when the plane turned and stopped in Los Ange- les, KHON-TV reported. There was a dispute between a 66-year-old male passenger and the flight crew over the cost of a blanket, said Rob Pe- dregon of the Los Angeles Airport Police. After being informed a blanket cost $12 the passenger "made a statement that he wanted to take somebody behind the woodshed over this, which prompted the flight crew to contact the captain who then in turn diverted the aircraft to LAX." Los Angeles Airport Po- lice and the FBI met the aircraft at the gate once it landed in Los Angeles. The passenger was not ar- rested. Officials say the passen- ger did not make a credi- ble or direct threat and no crime was committed. "(The crew) took offense to the statement that he made. Maybe they felt un- comfortable with it, which is well within their rights to divert the plane and re- fuse service," Pedregon said. Passengers on the flight had mixed reactions to the delay. Bianca Moors said she understood that the crew was just trying to stay safe. "They're doing it to pro- tect the passengers as well as the crew, because I think this is a very expensive stop for Hawaiian," she said. Dallas resident Claudia Rodriguez said she wished the crew had been more communicative about the diversion and delay. "The thing we were most upset about was when we got off the plane, when they deplaned us after sit- ting for an hour, we talked to one of the staff and we asked them what we would do next, and we were not given a lot of information," she said. "They told us to go ahead and seek other options, so we went ahead and bought another ticket for my husband and I and we're not going to get a re- fund on that one. We ended up losing $600." The flight departed Los Angeles a few hours later. LA STOP Hawaiian Airlines flight diverts a er dispute over blanket FERNANDO LLANO — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE A Sucre municipality worker fumigates for Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that transmit the Zika virus in the Petare neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela. Doctors tie Zika virus to heart problems in some adults FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 2017 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 3 B