Privileged Stanislaus State administrators harass employees, ruin lives, lawyer says | Opinion

The Modesto Bee recently reported that four courageous former CSU Stanislaus employees who were harassed, discriminated against and retaliated against while employed there have filed suit against California State University trustees.

Allegations include:

• Illegally extending the probationary period of a pregnant employee, and then firing her after her doctor put her on bedrest.
• Retaliating against a whistleblower by putting her on paid leave for over two years and commissioning two expensive investigations that exonerated her.
• Firing a Latina employee because she advocated for Latinas on the university foundation.
• Harassing a Laotian employee to the extent that he was monitored during restroom breaks, told that he would need a note from his physician if he needed to use the restroom outside of break times, then ordered to perform a task that he was not trained for and was outside of his job description, only to severely injure his hand, which necessitated his early retirement.

When each of these employees complained, they were retaliated against. All four were terminated or forced to quit.

Now (in a letter to the editor of The Bee), CSU Stanislaus President Ellen Junn would have you believe there is no “pattern of on-the-job discrimination, harassment or retaliation.”

The evidence says otherwise. Let’s face it, the CSU has a harassment, discrimination and retaliation problem in spades, as evidenced by stories across the state.

CSU Fresno and the chancellor’s office (sexual harassment and cover up); the Maritime Academy (harassment of female cadets); Sonoma State (sexual harassment); Sacramento State (employees harassed and discriminated against due to disabilities); Chico State (a faculty member allegedly had sex with a student in violation of university rules, lied about it, then threatened to kill witnesses and actually bought a gun and bullets to do so) — though the university knew of this, he was named professor of the year (since rescinded).

Prices paid by victims

These incidents have ruined lives and created mental health issues for the employees, and in the case of Chico, made witnesses fear for their lives. And, this is all being done with your taxpayer money.

Yet the CSU continues with its impossible denials, continuing to hope that gaslighting those who have suffered through intolerably degrading working conditions will convince the public that these employees are simply troublemakers.

These unacceptable incidents have forced some administrators to resign. Yet, in most cases, no one has been held accountable. No one has been disciplined. Instead, victims are treated like perpetrators and forced out of their jobs, and perpetrators keep their jobs or get a large payout to resign.

The CSU is broken. The privileged system of the CSU — where supervisors, managers and administrators feel they are above the rules, and that it’s OK to harass and ruin the lives of employees and former employees — is the problem. As long as this privileged system is allowed to continue, harassment claims at CSU campuses will continue.