Cal State Kept Harassment Findings Against 2 Professors Secret

California State University San Marcos kept secret the finding that two professors had engaged in “egregious sexual harassment and misconduct,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

In one incident, a professor kissed a student after he “insinuated” that he was turned on. In the other a professor “pinned a female student’s arms to her side, lowered his hands to her back and pressed his groin against her hips,” the student said.

Instead of pursuing disciplinary action, the university accepted “voluntary resignations, paid administrative leave and, in one case, expunging records of disciplinary action from his personnel file,” according to university reports obtained by the Times that detail the investigations and settlements. The university agreed to only inform potential employers of the professors’ dates of employment and job titles.

Both men currently work at other universities.

A San Marcos spokeswoman said, “The university’s priority was protecting its student and employee community and the quickest and, more importantly, most assured route to these individuals no longer working for the campus was via settlements. This route also avoided placing the complainants in the situation of being questioned about their testimony and going through the painful experience of reliving their experiences.”