Dear UC President Janet Napolitano, (Cc: UC Chancellors) We are postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and other academic workers in the University of California system. We are writing this open letter to share our frustrations with the UC Office of the President’s (UCOP) gross mishandling of sexual harassment and assault, and its failure to include important stakeholders in the process of reforming and implementing new policies. We are also appealing to our colleagues and professors in the UC system and around the country for help in pressuring you and your office to take your responsibilities to us seriously, instead of creating increasingly redundant committees that we are excluded from as unionized workers. Sexual harassment and assault of postdocs, grad students, and other academic workers is a systemic issue on every UC campus as is the failure of UCOP and campus Title IX offices to address these issues. The issues we face are multiple: inadequate campus and systemwide policies, ineffective Title IX offices, and investigations that directly harm those who come forward. As a result of this environment, many cannot report harassment and assault because of threatened and/or actual retaliation. This hostile environment has made us feel powerless as workers in our ability to effect change. While we have been inspired by the incredible support for the victims of Geoff Marcy, the graduate students and postdoctoral researchers writing this letter know of many other instances of harassment and assault that have been inadequately addressed—or simply ignored—within the last few years alone. Over the last year, UCOP has formed a taskforce aimed at changing policies regarding response to allegations of sexual harassment and assault; recently, they formed a special committee to address issues specifically relating to tenure that unjustly protect professors accused of sexual harassment and violence. However, UCOP has excluded both UAW 2865 (the union representing more than 14,000 TAs, tutors, and readers) and UAW 5810 (the union for over 6,000 postdoctoral researchers) from these committees, and has not sought our input in a formal way. Our requests to be involved in changing policies as union representatives have not even been dignified with official responses. Unofficial responses have implied that we were being excluded specifically because of our union status. Further, the proposed policy changes to date don’t explicitly address grad students or postdocs; the

language only addresses undergraduates. UCOP does not seem to understand that grad students and postdocs face issues with harassment directly related to our employment, or the power relationships between us and professors, with which perpetrators can quite literally destroy our careers in retaliation. Despite having made superficial attempts at addressing these systemic issues, Title IX offices on our campuses are still woefully slow—and in some cases directly unhelpful—in addressing claims of harassment and assault by grad students and postdocs. Some Title IX offices can take over a year to provide even an initial response to a claim, despite what we view as a legal obligation to address a potentially harmful situation immediately (and recommended policy changes do not fix this). When victims of harassment make their refusal to accept harassing behavior known via Title IX, these delays escalate already hostile work environments. We have even seen delay tactics in the context of very serious claims that, had the Union not stepped in, could have led to serious harm. Sometimes, academic workers are encouraged to seek “informal” resolutions involving no discipline or documentation, thus sweeping the issue under the rug; other times they are given inadequate information about addressing their cases. In addition, Title IX and other policies mandate “confidentiality” in ways that isolate those who come forward and enable the accused professors to gather allies inappropriately. Recent revelations about the inadequacy of the faculty disciplinary process, specifically the three-year statute of limitations, don’t begin to scratch the surface of the major problems with these policies. Currently, in order for disciplinary action to take place, those who make allegations must come forward in a quasi-trial process that places the burden of proof upon survivors, reproducing the violence they have already faced. In perhaps the biggest travesty of justice, this process is made confidential to the point that a professor could move on to another institution to commit further acts of violence without UC allegations ever coming to light. What must be done? We demand that UCOP take immediate steps to end sexual harassment and assault of academic workers at the UC, and assist victims in seeking justice to the fullest extent possible, recognizing that merely forming exclusionary committees and slow steps towards policy revision is not enough. As Union representatives, we demand a seat at the table so that UCOP will hear the concerns of academic workers and take the process of reform seriously. Only by doing these things can we make harassment and assault of academic workers by professors unthinkable on our campuses. Sincerely, The Executive Boards of UAW 5810 and UAW 2865