CSUN Move Seeks to Assure Fairness : Panel to Mediate Sex-Harassment Cases

California State University, Northridge has agreed to form a committee to mediate sexual harassment complaints after some faculty members said the school’s earlier procedures were unfair to those accused of harassment.

The 10-member committee will attempt to resolve complaints through mediation, sparing victims as well as anyone falsely accused from public knowledge of the allegations, said Jeanette Mann, director of CSUN’s affirmative action program.

“The committee will emphasize mediation and conciliation; it will also rely on confidentiality, discreet inquiry, persuasion and trust in dealing with complaints,” according to the new procedures that were officially approved Monday by university President James W. Cleary.

University students or staff will be able to file a formal grievance if mediation fails to resolve complaints, Mann said.

The earlier procedures authorized a variety of administrators to handle complaints and were unclear about when higher-ranking university officials should be notified, Mann said.

Less Clear Before

In the new rules, “it’s written down what people are supposed to do,” Mann said. “Before, it was much less clear.”

The previous procedures also called for officials in some cases to notify an accused person’s supervisor of an accusation, even if the accuser declined to file a formal grievance.

A group of 11 faculty members protested those rules last year. The group contended that some faculty members’ reputations or careers were being damaged by sexual-harassment complaints that the group said stemmed from academic disputes, misunderstandings or differences of opinion, not sex.

The new procedures call for the committee to be made up of Mann, four tenured faculty members, three staff counselors, one student and one university staff employee.

The committee would appoint a three-member “assessment team” to investigate and mediate complaints.

‘Minimum of Damage’

If the complaint were found to be groundless, no written record would be kept and no one would be notified, Mann said. “We would hope there would be a minimum of damage to the person accused.”

If the team were to find “probable cause,” it would recommend that Cleary consider taking formal action.

A leading critic of the earlier procedures was not satisfied with the new ones. Ronald L. F. Davis, a history professor, along with another professor, resigned from the Faculty Senate after that body recommended the new procedures to Cleary earlier this month.

Davis said that the procedures allow the keeping of “secret files” and that informal mediation doesn’t offer accused people the protection of legal counsel.

“It’s possible for the accused to plea-bargain their guilt,” said Davis, adding that the pressure on the accuser “to accept some kind of plea bargain is very damaging.”