U of California students take harassment concerns to agency

(AP) — Two graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley took their allegations that a professor sexually harassed them to the state agency that investigates discrimination claims on Monday, saying they were frustrated by the campus administration's failure to discipline the faculty member.

The doctoral students, Kathleen Gutierrez and Erin Bennett, filed complaints on Monday with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing saying that South and Southeast Asian Studies Assistant Professor Blake Wentworth repeatedly touched them and made inappropriate sexual comments.

Accompanied by a lawyer, the women went public with their claims on the UC Berkeley campus as several student groups prepared to hold a rally to protest a series of sexual harassment cases that since the fall have embarrassed the prestigious school and led to the resignations of a prominent astronomer, a law school dean and an assistant basketball coach.

Bennett, 25, said the stress of her interactions with Wentworth and fear of running into him on campus caused her to take medical leave and suspend the second year of her graduate studies.

An investigator concluded in October that Wentworth had violated university sexual harassment policy with his behavior toward Gutierrez, but not during his dealings with Bennett, according to redacted records obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request.