Tuesday, March 10, 1998
Student campaigns for harassment policy reform
USAC: Representative seeks less bureaucracy, more balanced
inquries
By Dennis Lim
Daily Bruin Contributor
Sexual harassment cases at UCLA often go unresolved for years,
and are often biased against the victim, according to Darnell
Grisby, General Representative in the Undergraduate Student
Association Council (USAC).
Grisby, who himself has filed a sexual harassment complaint and
seen no resolution, says that administration policies on sexual
harassment fail to help the victim.
"The sexual harassment policies at this school are very
non-victim friendly," Grisby said.
Currently, sexual harassment complaints from students and
faculty are dealt with by the Human Resources division of
ASUCLA.
To counter this trend of non-victim friendly policies, the
general representative has begun a campaign to change the
administration’s policies on sexual harassment.
Grisby’s campaign will begin Thursday with a petition to Vice
Chancellor of Student Affairs, Winston Doby, to change current
sexual harassment policy.
The campaign aims to accomplish three goals: the re-activation
of the Committee on Sexual Harassment, reduction of bureaucracy in
harassment grievance procedures, and the production of sexual
harassment policies that are more friendly to victims.
The campaign aims to restructure the Committee on Sexual
Harassment, an advisory board to the university regarding its
sexual harassment policy, that has not met in more than a year and
a half. Grisby aims to get heavy representation of USAC-approved
students and staff on the committee.
In addition, those on the campaign wish to reduce the "layers of
bureaucracy" involved in filing a sexual harassment complaint.
This, they claim, would make policies more victim-friendly.
"Students have a very high turn-over rate, and the sexual
harassment policies don’t accommodate that," said Faneeza Mohamed,
a staff person in Grisby’s office.
According to the General Representative’s office, a complaint
goes through numerous committees, each of which have their own
fact-finding group. Each fact-finding group then conducts its own
investigation of the complaint.
"Before students leave they should have some resolution to their
complaints, but some of these investigations can take years to
resolve. They need to streamline the number of investigations per
complaint," she continued.
Keith Parker, the Staff Affirmative Action Officer, who deals
with sexual harassment complaints from staff members, sees things
differently.
Parker sees the "layers of bureaucracy" as a welcome improvement
from the previous system.
"Before, one office and, in essence, one person handled
complaints from students, faculty, and staff. That was a problem,
since sexual harassment complaints are very labor-intensive – that
office would frequently get overwhelmed," Parker said.
Lastly, the campaign aims to change the university’s sexual
harassment policies from being largely faculty-oriented to being
more victim-oriented. Campaigners claim that the university tends
to protect faculty in sexual harassment cases.
"Faculty members on this campus have a lot of influence. Combine
that political influence with sexual harassment, an already touchy,
taboo subject, you get the non-victim friendly policies we have
today," Grisby said.
In February, Parker’s office, the Staff Affirmative Action
Office, was founded to handle sexual harassment complaints dealing
with staff.
Responsibility for student sexual harassment complaints are
expected to make the transition to the Student Affairs Office in
the near future.
Parker contends that the time taken in investigations is needed
to allow a thorough investigation where both sides of the complaint
can express their views. Cutting that time could compromise the
breadth of such investigations.
"If no one else saw the harassment, that doesn’t give us a lot
to work with," Parker said. "That can leave the impression that the
institution is being protected and not the victim, but we still
have to look at both sides."
Grisby, though not wanting to compromise the investigations into
sexual harassment complaints, feels that an undeniable problem
still exists.
"The problem here is like an old house. You can paint it with
new paint and make it look new, but the problems on the inside will
still persist until you fix them," Grisby explained.