University of California President Janet Napolitano issued the following letter to UC chancellors on Jan. 24, 2014. It asks that they ensure that five measures are present on each campus to assure that incidents of discrimination, bias or harassment affecting faculty, students or staff are addressed in a robust, fair and transparent manner.

President Napolitano emphasized her and the chancellors’ shared commitment to creating campuses that are diverse, inclusive, and respectful and free from acts of discrimination, bias, and harassment, and she expressed her confidence that these measures would significantly advance that commitment.

The five measures reflect the recommendations of a working group jointly led by the Academic Senate and the UC Provost, which Napolitano appointed in October and charged with assessing on a systemwide basis the issues raised in an independent report by former California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno on accounts of discrimination and bias involving faculty at one UC campus.

Sent to UC chancellors Jan. 24, 2014

Dear Colleagues,

Following the October 13th release of the report by former California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno on accounts of discrimination and bias involving faculty at one University of California campus, I asked the University’s Provost and the Chair of the Academic Senate to form a joint Senate-Administration working group to assess the issues raised by the Moreno report, as well as broader issues related to UC’s handling of complaints of discrimination, bias, or harassment and how the University promotes and supports diversity across the UC system.

Based on the recommendations of that working group and our subsequent joint discussions, together we have identified a set of five measures that every UC campus will implement if they are not already in place on the campus. These measures will ensure our campuses are addressing incidents of discrimination, bias, or harassment in a robust, fair, and transparent manner.

Accordingly, I am asking that each of you ensure that the following measures are all in place on your campus:

  1. Every campus should designate an official to serve as its lead discrimination officer. This official is responsible for ensuring that an appropriate response is made to all reports of perceived acts of discrimination, bias, and harassment involving faculty, students, and staff from all parts of the campus.
    • The discrimination officer will designate the individuals responsible for carrying out such activities as advising complainants, accepting complaints, carrying out investigations, recommending informal resolutions, and referring cases to the Academic Senate or administrators as appropriate.
    • The Chancellor should ensure that he/she regularly meets with and reviews the work of the lead discrimination officer.
  2. Every campus should have an official who serves as an ombudsperson, responsible on his or her own or through other staff for providing confidential advice about perceived acts of discrimination, bias, and harassment involving faculty, students, and staff from all parts of the campus. The ombudsperson will remain entirely independent from the lead discrimination officer and will be located separately from the lead discrimination officer. He or she may carry out some investigations and seek informal resolutions of complaints, as well as contributing data to the annual report.
  3. Every campus should have a “one-stop shop” website on policies, procedures, and personnel covering discrimination, bias, harassment, as well as diversity. The site will be able to accept complaints filed electronically, including anonymous complaints; provide information for an annual report of complaints and their resolution; and offer education and training, as well as the reporting responsibilities of various administrators and staff.
  4. The Chancellor of every campus should continue to advocate for diversity, inclusion, and respect for all persons and deplore any acts of discrimination, bias, and harassment. Messages on these topics should be widely distributed throughout the campus, including on the website described above.
  5. Every campus should compile an annual report that includes the number and types of formal and informal complaints about perceived acts of discrimination, bias, and harassment, including confidential complaints, how they were investigated, the findings, and the consequences should a complaint have been found to have merit.

Each campus has the flexibility to implement these measures in a manner that makes sense given existing offices and administrative structures. The officials serving as the discrimination officer and the ombudsperson need not be the only campus officials to perform the functions listed above. To the extent one or more of these measures are already in place at a campus, that campus need not create a new office.

In addition, it will benefit all of us if there is systemwide agreement about a set of data that every campus will collect, analyze, and use to identify and address progress and remaining problems. Consequently, I am asking Provost Dorr to work with you and with the Academic Senate to put together a systemwide workgroup that will develop the specifications for the common data set, analyses, and reporting/use processes. I am also asking the Office of the General Counsel to support the working group by providing legal guidance about the kind of information that can be gathered and reported that will inform others about the resolution of cases of perceived acts of discrimination, bias, and harassment while simultaneously respecting confidentiality.

I am confident that the full set of five measures reflect your intention as well as mine, and draw upon your own campus experiences and practices, the Moreno Report, and the December 23, 2013 report of the Senate-Administration Work Group on the Moreno Report.

I know that all of us are committed to creating campuses that are diverse, inclusive, and respectful and free from acts of discrimination, bias, and harassment. I respect greatly the work that you have done and the work that you will do as we continue in these efforts.

Yours very truly,

Janet Napolitano

President

cc: The Regents of the University of California

Members, President’s Cabinet

Professor William Jacob, Co-chair Senate-Administration Work Group

Provost Aimée Dorr, Co-chair Senate-Administration Work Group

Executive Vice Chancellors/Provosts