CSUN, Black Student Settle Racial Grievance

A black Cal State Northridge graduate student will meet Tuesday with three professors she accused of failing to protect her from racial harassment by classmates.

The meeting is part of a settlement reached in November between the school and Ruth Robertson, who filed a grievance with the university’s department of affirmative action against the professors. Robertson could not be reached for comment.

University officials determined that the professors did nothing wrong after concluding an investigation into the grievance last month, CSUN spokeswoman Ann Salisbury said.

The meeting Tuesday will be about Robertson’s “academic performance,” Associate Dean Dianne Philibosian said. Philibosian said she could not disclose details of the settlement or whether Robertson had disputed a grade received in the courses.

Robertson, 54, said in her February grievance that the professors failed to intervene after she complained to them that classmates in her graduate-level counseling classes were harassing and threatening her because she is black. The professors denied the charge.

Robertson and the professors last month signed a settlement of the grievance based on the university’s investigation, said Bernard Nisenholz, who was named in the complaint along with Don Dorsey and Dorothy Doyle.

“It’s been resolved, and part of the resolution is that we have a meeting so that she could tell us some of her concerns,” Nisenholz said.

Nisenholz said Robertson, who was one of about 35 students who took classes together in a special counseling program during the fall semester of 1987, never complained to him about threats or racial harassment.

“I don’t doubt that racism goes on; it’s all over,” Nisenholz said. “But as far as I know, that wasn’t the issue.”

Nisenholz said Robertson was having trouble getting along with classmates and keeping up with the work required in his class.

“She was vulnerable and very sensitive, probably overly so,” he said. “She would sometimes storm out of class during a lecture.”