The dean of the University of California, Berkeley’s Boalt Hall, one of the nation’s top law schools, said Wednesday that he would resign from the university because of a sexual harassment allegation lodged by a former student.
John Dwyer, Boalt’s dean since July 2000, announced his resignation in a letter to faculty, staff and students, surprising many of them as they prepared to leave for the Thanksgiving holiday.
In the letter, Dwyer said he and the female student, who has since graduated, “had a single encounter two years ago that was consensual. . . . I acknowledge that this reflected a serious error in judgment on my part and was inappropriate.”
Dwyer indicated that the woman who filed the complaint was never a student in his classroom.
University spokeswoman Janet Gilmore said the university began an internal investigation immediately after the former student filed her complaint on Oct. 11, and the probe continues. Gilmore confirmed that it focuses on a single encounter but declined to provide any further details, saying the matter is confidential.
UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl declined to be interviewed about the matter, and Dwyer did not return phone calls left at his office and home.
Dwyer, 50, is an environmental law expert and a popular dean. Dwyer, who graduated from Boalt in 1980, was the second graduate of the school to serve as its dean in its 108-year history. His resignation as dean takes effect Jan. 1.
The episode spotlights the problem of sexual encounters between faculty and students on university campuses, which many experts believe occur far more often than is reported.
Dozens of universities in the United States curb fraternization between students and faculty, prompted by court decisions over the past two decades that have expanded the scope of sexual harassment law and led to a spate of judgments against universities and other employers.
Gilmore said she didn’t know whether Dwyer was being investigated under UC’s sexual harassment policy or under its faculty code of conduct, but law school faculty members pointed out that the sexual harassment policy has a 90-day limit that may have prevented it from being applied.
The 11-page code of conduct, which has a three-year statute of limitations, does not specifically prohibit fraternization. Rather, it requires professors to “avoid any exploitation, harassment or discriminatory treatment of students.” In addition, it bars discrimination against students for reasons related to sex, sexual orientation and other areas covered by civil rights law.
Sexual harassment allegations are increasingly arising on university campuses, partly because of poor training of staff and faculty, said Jan Salisbury, a consultant and researcher who advises universities and other organizations on sexual harassment issues.
“Most colleges and universities lag far behind workplaces in the way they prevent and resolve harassment and discrimination complaints,” she said.
For instance, she said, faculty normally aren’t required to receive training to prevent or resolve potential sexual harassment issues.
Faculty and students were surprised by the development at Boalt; the incident and investigation had been kept quiet within the law school.
“It looks to me like it happened overnight,” said Jan Vetter, associate dean at Boalt.
In addition, some faculty members and students expressed dismay that a single encounter–one that occurred two years ago with a student who wasn’t in a class taught by Dwyer–would lead to the dean’s resignation.
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“What you have here maybe is the university leaning over backward to be politically correct,” said Stephen Barnett, a professor who has taught at Boalt Hall for 30 years.
Dwyer graduated Phi Beta Kappa from DePauw University in Indiana and then earned a doctorate in chemical physics at the California Institute of Technology before heading to Boalt.