Submission: Greater action against sexual violence needed for safer UCLA community

To the UCLA community:

As part of the first annual Faculty Day of Action on April 16, 2015, UCLA faculty and graduate students are taking a stand with survivors of sexual violence by demanding more transparency and accountability in the way our university handles Title IX cases. The U.S. Department of Education is currently investigating UCLA in response to a Title IX complaint involving faculty-perpetrated sexual harassment and assault. While student-perpetrated violence against fellow students has received attention, faculty violation of Title IX continues to pass unnoticed. Title IX defines sexual harassment and sexual violence as forms of gender discrimination prohibited by law. We are calling on UCLA to demonstrate to the campus community that it is punishing all perpetrators of gender discrimination, whether they are students, staff, or faculty. The Moreno report released on Oct. 15, 2013 finds that the university has failed to communicate consequences for acts of racial discrimination at UCLA, leading to a culture of impunity. We believe this is a systemic problem in the way our university handles acts of gender discrimination as well. By failing to provide evidence of meaningful action against perpetrators of sexual harassment and sexual violence, UCLA is creating an unsafe environment for all of us. We demand that our university administration communicate the consequences of violating the university’s policies on nondiscrimination, in addition to taking visible and meaningful action against anyone who sexually harasses or assaults members of our campus community.

Nefertiti Takla, Ph.D. candidate, department of history

Jenny Sharpe, professor of English, gender studies, and comparative literature

Kristen Hillaire Glasgow, Ph.D. candidate, department of history

Abigail Saguy, associate professor, departments of sociology and gender studies

Sondra Hale, professor emerita, departments of anthropology and gender studies

Ellen Dubois, professor, departments of history and gender studies

Anat Mooreville, Ph.D. candidate, department of history

Jean-Paul R. deGuzman, postdoctoral fellow, UC Center for New Racial Studies (Ph.D., UCLA)

Pauline Lewis, Ph.D. candidate, department of history

Alma Heckman, Ph.D. candidate, department of history

Ceren Abi, Ph.D. candidate, department of history

Hanna Petro, Ph.D. student, department of history

Matthew S. Luckett, dean’s lecturer on social research, department of history

James L. Gelvin, professor, department of history

Rachel Eva Schley, Ph.D. candidate, department of history

Selah S. Johnson, Ph. D. candidate, department of history

Brian Kovalesky, Ph.D. candidate, department of history

Jason Lustig, Ph.D. candidate, department of history

Michael Cooperson, professor, Near Eastern languages and cultures

Muriel McClendon, associate professor and vice chair, department of history

Stephen Frank, associate professor, department of history

Sarah Abrevaya Stein, professor and vice chair, department of history

Lindsay A. King, Ph.D. student, department of history

Ali Nehme Hamdan, Ph.D. student, department of geography

Amanda Apgar, Ph.D. student, department of gender studies

Catherine Wang, master’s candidate, department of Asian American studies

Elizabeth Thornton, Ph.D. candidate, program in Indo-European studies

Michelle Chang, master’s student, department of Asian American studies

Robert Farley, Ph.D. student, department of comparative literature

Justin Jack Wilson, Ph.D. student, department of history

Samuel D. Anderson, Ph.D. candidate, department of history

Maia Isabelle Woolner, Ph.D. student, department of history

Reem Bailony, Ph.D. candidate, department of history

Sohaib Baig, Ph.D. student, department of history

Sarah Walsh, Ph.D. candidate, department of history

Stephen Aron, professor and incoming chair, department of history and director of the Autry museum

Mary Momdjian, Ph.D. candidate, department of history

KT Bender, Ph.D. student, department of geography

Kevin Richardson, Ph.D. student, department of history

Wakako Suzuki, Ph.D. student, department of Asian languages and cultures

Kate Craig, Ph.D. candidate, department of history

Jonathan Koch, Ph.D. student, department of music

Murat C. Yildiz, Ph.D. candidate, department of history

Konstantinos Thanasakis, Ph.D. candidate, department of history

Sandra Brasda, Ph.D. candidate, department of history

Laura Ritchie Morgan, Ph.D. candidate, department of history

Toulouse Roy, Ph.D. student, department of history

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