Berkeley Professor Suspended for Alleged Sexual Harassment, Abuse of Power Will Sue University

A University of California, Berkeley professor who was suspended for alleged sexual harassment and abuse of power has resigned and said he will sue the university, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Architecture professor Nezar AlSayyad was suspended in August for three years without pay after a faculty senate hearing found he had sexually harassed a graduate student, and the chancellor determined he had used his powers for personal benefit, according to the Chronicle. His suspension also prevented him from entering nonpublic campus areas or having a role in faculty governance.

Chancellor Carol Christ also was allowed by the University of California President to delay granting the architecture professor's emeritus status for three years if he retired. AlSayyad, 62, said through an attorney he will sue to challenge his three-year campus ban and request his emeritus privileges, which allow retired scholars to keep an office on campus and continue advising students, be restored after one year.

"He believes that if he leaves for three years, it will be very difficult for him to reintegrate into the university," AlSayyad's attorney Dan Siegel said.

His punishment followed an investigation beginning in March 2016 that found he "had spent months ingratiating himself with Hagberg Fisher before placing his hand on her upper thigh, proposing they become 'close friends' and suggesting they go to Las Vegas," according to the Chronicle. The paper said the investigation detailed how "he sought to position himself as Hagberg Fisher's protector and make her beholden to him while he served on her all-important exam committee that would determine if she was qualified to write a doctoral dissertation."

The five-month investigation found AlSayyad intimidated and isolated his student. The Chronicle found that others had also complained about AlSayyad's behavior for decades.

The faculty senate hearing recommended he be suspended only for a year. While the university banned him from teaching in 2016, AlSayyad had initially continued to receive his $211,000 salary.

The architecture professor, who is internationally recognized and had taught at UC Berkeley since 1985, has denied the allegations levied against him.

"Roughly 40 of (AlSayyad's) female mentees, in person or in writing, spoke powerfully about him as a mentor and never saw him engage in anything remotely smacking of misconduct or sexual harassment," Siegel said.

Fisher, the student who brought the claim against AlSayyad, said it was "unconscionable" the university took two years after its investigation to punish its professor. She negotiated an $80,000 settlement with the university last year in exchange for not suing.

UC Berkeley has failed to fulfill legal requirements to enforce sexual harassment and violence procedures over a period of years, according to a federal investigation that concluded earlier this year.

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights looked into over 200 cases of sexual harassment. Investigators found that university authorities had failed to adequately inform students of their rights, and students said that the university was biased when investigating claims. UC Berkeley agreed to a two-year monitoring period and said it will change its procedures for dealing with allegations.

Last year, the university regents agreed to pay $1.7 million to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit after a UC Berkeley employee said her boss, Sujit Choudhry, hugged, kissed and touched her between 2014 and 2015. Choudhry was the dean of the law school when the abuse allegedly took place, SFGate reported.