Tuesday, March 3, 1998
Manager claims harassment case delayed
COMPLAINTS Employee believes UCLA Dining Services not
handling investigation properly
By Scot Sargeant
Daily Bruin Contributor
UCLA Dining Services may have dragged their feet on
investigating a case of harassment relating to sexual orientation,
according to one of its employees.
The employee also claims that attempts to file investigations
and instigate reforms have received little attention from Housing
Administration directors.
Heather Hassinger, on-campus senior meeting rooms manager, is
one of four employees in the past five years from Dining Services
who have complained of harassment relating to their sexual
orientation.
"I’m disgusted with the whole situation, how they are handling
the situation. As far as I can see now, changes aren’t happening.
It leaves the door open for this to happen to someone else," said
Hassinger.
Officials from Housing Administration, which oversees Dining
Services, say they have taken the necessary steps to investigate
the situation.
"We are required to utilize existing campus human resource
policies," said Michael Foraker, Director of Housing
Administration.
Hassinger, who is an out lesbian, joined the Meeting Rooms
Department last May. She claims she began encountering sexual
harassment from her employees in August. At first, she found
offensive comments written about her that referred to her sexual
orientation.
One case of graffiti, in which sexual comments were engraved on
the stone columns in the basement of Covel Commons, particularly
disturbed Hassinger.
"At that point, I let my boss know I was furious, I was scared –
now I was being threatened. I let her know that I was having a hard
time functioning as a manager here," she said.
Hassinger then met with Agnes Warren, director of administrative
services, and Nina Purtell, manager of personnel and payroll, both
members of the Business and Finance department.
"They explained that they wanted to do a full-on investigation
of my crew," she said. However, the idea didn’t appeal to Hassinger
because she feared the effect that an investigation would have on
her crew.
"I didn’t want to do that because every time we question the
crew, they rebel even more," she said. "I feared for my life at
that point, and I let (Housing Administration) know that."
Instead, Hassinger simply asked to have the graffiti removed
immediately, and to have pictures of the graffiti taken. However,
the engravings were not removed immediately; in fact, Hassinger
says it took nearly two months and several requests for Dining
Services to finally remove the writing.
Both Purtell and Warren declined to comment on the case.
According to Hassinger, Business and Finance told her that
because she turned down the initial offer to fire her entire crew,
and to file an official complaint, little could be done to resolve
the issue.
Another case of vandalism, which appeared on her office door,
led Hassinger to question her employees, trying to find the source
of these problems.
A meeting room crew member admitted to writing the comments, and
proceeded to resign. However, as he was walking away, he yelled
obscene sexual comments at Hassinger.
"I let my boss know, because now I was really concerned. I
didn’t trust this guy as far as I could throw him," she said.
This led Hassinger to file a full complaint, saying that she
feared for her safety. Her boss, Dayna Kenniston, area director of
dining services, said that they would research the issue in an
internal investigation within the Housing Administration.
But Hassinger feels that little attention was paid to conducting
the investigation. In terms of the crew member’s case, "nothing
ever came of it," Hassinger said.
Kenniston was unavailable for comment.
In October, the managers of Dining Services received an unsigned
letter from a former employee, saying that harassment against gay
and lesbian employees had taken place, and that managers had done
nothing to mitigate the situation. In the letter were names of
employees who had sexually harassed Hassinger.
Hassinger asked for the letter to be used in the investigations.
She was told, however, that because the letter was not signed, it
could not be used as evidence.
A few weeks later, Hassinger decided to question how the Housing
Administration investigation was proceeding, but she says she never
received any answers from Purtell or Warren.
Hassinger feels that the investigation has been handled
haphazardly. She claims she was denied information on the
investigation and was told that the photos of the engraved comments
had not developed.
She was then directed to UCLA’s Human Resources department. Here
she was told that her only option was to file a complaint against
her department.
Because she was receiving conflicting reports from various
departments, and she didn’t believe that filing a complaint against
her own department would help, Hassinger said she decided to hire a
lawyer to assist in resolving her complaints.
However, her lawyer has had trouble resolving the complaints as
well.
Only two members from Hassinger’s original crew remain currently
employed. Those that have been fired, however, cannot be
interviewed by Human Resources because they are no longer employees
for Business and Finance.
Three weeks ago, Hassinger and her lawyer were told that the
investigation was complete.
However, Hassinger says she has yet to hear any word on the
outcome. Hassinger and her lawyer are scheduled to meet with Human
Resources and directors from the Housing Administration in the next
two weeks to discuss the investigation. Campus Ombuds will serve as
the mediator.
"We have a policy here, that you can’t discriminate against
sexual orientation. They broke their own policy, and that’s what
we’re trying to get across here. They don’t seem to want to accept
that," Hassinger said.