The former dean of the University of California Berkeley School of Law returned to work this week following his departure last semester and an earlier finding that he had violated sexual harassment policies.
A group of students protested the return of professor Sujit Choudhry on Wednesday, and on Thursday, chalk messages calling for zero tolerance for sexual harassment remained on the walls of the school.
Sujit Choudhry
UC Berkeley
Choudhry wrote an open letter in the campus newspaper, The Daily Californian, earlier in the week saying that he understood the confusion and potential alarm about his return. University of California President Janet Napolitano had asked that Choudhry be banned from campus for the 2016 spring semester. Choudhry in return resigned his position as dean and stayed away from Berkeley, but he was never formally banned, the Daily Californian reported.
Choudhry is not scheduled to teach classes, but he returned to work out of his office this week.
"I have the right to go to work," he wrote in the Daily Cal. "I am exercising that right, peacefully and unobtrusively."
Last year, BuzzFeed News revealed a prominent Berkeley astronomer had violated the university's sexual harassment policies for a decade without being disciplined. Since 2011, 19 Berkeley employees were found to have violated the campus sexual harassment policy and new scrutiny was placed on how adminstrators handled each case.
UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks resigned last month amid criticism that he had mishandled several sexual harassment cases involving high-profile staff.
In Choudhry's case, his executive assistant accused him of treating her in a demeaning way, as well as subjecting her to unwanted hugging and kissing. Choudhry responded that there was no sexual intent in any of their interactions.
But a 2015 university report noted that sexual intent was not necessary for sexual harassment and found Choudhry had violated the university policy by a preponderance of evidence.
"I am not a predator and have never been accused of being one until now," Choudhry wrote in the Daily Cal. "In the face of public hysteria, I am the predator who never was, purportedly subject to a campus ban that never was."
The university sanctioned Choudhry with a salary deduction, a punishment that some critics said was too light. And his former executive assistant, Tyann Sorrell, went on to file a lawsuit, alleging the university did not respond quickly or effectively to her claims.
Tyann Sorrell appears at the University of California campus in Berkeley on April.
Jeff Chiu / AP
On Wednesday, she told the Guardian that Choudhry's continued presence on campus could send a message to other victims of sexual harassment that they should not come forward.
"I’m still trying to piece myself back together,” she told the Guardian. “But he’s backed by his credentials and status … He’s a scholar who gets to return to work and a sense of normalcy."
LINK: Rocked By Sexual Harassment Scandals, UC Berkeley Head Resigns
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