BERKELEY — As fury grows over reports that esteemed astronomer Geoff Marcy sexually harassed female students for years, UC Berkeley on Monday defended how it has handled complaints against the professor.
The claims first surfaced publicly late last week when BuzzFeed published a story on a confidential university investigation that concluded in June and resulted in a warning. According to BuzzFeed, four women complained that Marcy had repeatedly subjected students to unwanted advances, including kisses, groping and massages. The piece reported that the harassment was an open secret among astronomers.
“The university has imposed real consequences on Professor Geoff Marcy by establishing a zero-tolerance policy regarding future behavior and by stripping him of the procedural protections that all other faculty members enjoy before he can be subject to discipline up to and including termination,” the university said in a statement Monday.
But students are livid that the professor received what they see as a mere warning for his past behavior as part of an agreement reached with the university’s vice provost for the faculty.
“I think it says that the faculty does not truly care about sexual assault and harassment against its students and care more about our academic reputation,” said Meghan Warner, a UC Berkeley senior and a student representative to a UC-wide task force on sexual violence.
Marcy, a professor at UC Berkeley since 1999, was considered in the running for a Nobel Prize for his discovery and study of large planets outside of our solar system. He did not respond to this newspaper’s request for comment, but posted an open apology letter on his faculty page last week, shortly before BuzzFeed — which obtained the confidential report — broke the story.
“While I do not agree with each complaint that was made, it is clear that my behavior was unwelcomed by some women,” Marcy wrote. “I take full responsibility and hold myself completely accountable for my actions and the impact they had. For that and to the women affected, I sincerely apologize.”
More than 2,000 signatures were listed as of Monday on an online petition posted late last week that declared support for “the people who were targets of Geoff Marcy’s inappropriate behavior and those who have spoken publicly about it. I agree that sexual harassment has no place in our community,” it states.
The incidents are believed to have occurred between 2001 and 2010 with students who have since graduated; the university first received the complaints in July 2014, said campus spokeswoman Janet Gilmore.
Faculty have more protections than students who are accused of violating campus policies, and they undergo a sanctioning process that includes a hearing before their peers. The university administration cannot unilaterally fire a professor, for instance, while it can expel a student.
The university concluded that setting “clear behavioral standards” for Marcy on his interactions with students, along with the waiving of those protections, “was the most certain and effective option for preventing any inappropriate future conduct.”
But the problem is greater than this one high-profile professor, Warner said. Graduate students who are harassed by faculty, she said, often fear that reporting the problem will end their careers.
“It’s been a real problem for graduate students, and it’s something activists haven’t addressed nearly enough,” she said.
Follow Katy Murphy at Twitter.com/katymurphy.
