Graduate Student Sues UCLA Over Sexual Harassment
A 32-year-old graduate student filed suit Monday against UCLA, its chancellor and two of its chemistry professors, alleging sexual harassment and sexual assault and battery.
Diane Reifschneider alleged that she was harassed beginning in June 1993 and was pressured into an unwelcome sexual relationship with her faculty advisor, which lasted until August 1995. The advisor, a UCLA chemistry and biochemistry professor, had a history of preying on female students, the suit alleges.
The suit accuses the university and its administration of failing to adequately discipline its faculty for harassing students. The suit alleges that administrators continued “to coddle and reward [the professor] because he was able to attract significant sums of grant money to UCLA.”
In addition to general damages, the suit seeks a permanent injunction to prevent UCLA from allowing a lone advisor to oversee a graduate student’s progress, contending that the intensity of that relationship can allow the professor to exert “Svengali-like control” over the student.
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