UCLA focuses on preventing sexual violence and harassment with week of special events

To help everyone on campus gain a clearer and deeper understanding of the complicated issues surrounding sexual harassment and sexual violence, UCLA is presenting its first Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment Awareness Week.

Beginning April 16, five days of programs will delve into the history of the problems and help promote the resources offered by the campus and the University of California. The initiative is organized by BruinX, the research and development arm of UCLA’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and other campus units.

“This inaugural week-long series of events is part of a broader effort on the part of the university to more comprehensively confront the realities of sexual harassment and sexual violence,” said Devon Carbado, UCLA professor of law and associate vice chancellor of BruinX. “Various student groups, including the Bruin Consent Coalition, have long engaged in efforts to end sexual harassment and sexual violence on campus. Motivating this week is the sense that more programming and engagement on the part of the university is in order.”

Sessions will explore UC-wide efforts to eliminate sexual violence and sexual harassment on the campuses; UCLA’s processes for adjudicating allegations of sexual violence and sexual harassment; and the range of resources at UCLA available to those who have experienced sexual violence and sexual harassment.

The schedule also will include a special segment on the role black women played in shaping the development of sexual harassment law. Moderated by law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, and co-sponsored by the African American Policy Forum, that session will feature two of the lead plaintiffs in the first wave of sexual harassment lawsuits as well as law professor Catharine MacKinnon, the legal theorist who conceptualized how to translate sexual harassment in the workplace into actionable discrimination. The week’s programming will further foreground how sexual violence and sexual harassment affect certain groups at UCLA, such as LGBTQ people and how UCLA’s Title IX office addresses concerns about accountability, transparency, remediation and due process.

Monday, April 16
Before #TimesUp and #MeToo: Quid pro quo and hostile work environment: How black women shaped the development of sexual harassment law
6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. (Reception at 6 p.m.)
UCLA School of Law, Room 1347
Participants:

• Sandra Bundy, plaintiff in Bundy v. Jackson (first federal appeals court case to hold that workplace sexual harassment was employment discrimination and a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964)
• Kimberlé Crenshaw, a UCLA distinguished professor of law
• Catharine MacKinnon, Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
• Pamela Price, attorney, 2018 candidate for Alameda County District Attorney, and plaintiff in Alexander (Price) v. Yale (first case to challenge sexual harassment as a form of sex discrimination in education)

Tuesday, April 17
CrossCheck Live: From federal law to UCLA’s codes of conduct: How sexual harassment is regulated 
5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
UCLA School of Law, Room 1420
Moderator: Jerry Kang, vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion; professor of law and Asian American studies, and Korea Times Hankook Ilbo Endowed Chair, UCLA
​Participants:

• Chandra Bhatnagar, director, UCLA staff diversity and affirmative action/EEO compliance office
• Anna Park, regional attorney, Los Angeles district office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• Kathleen Salvaty, UC Title IX coordinator

Wednesday, April 18
Real talk with Title IX: Discussing concerns about transparency, confidentiality, accountability and due process
3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
UCLA School of Law, Room 1347
​Participants include Mohammed Cato, UCLA’s sexual harassment prevention officer and Title IX coordinator, and members of his team.

Sexual violence and civil rights history: Screening of “The Rape of Recy Taylor”
6 p.m.
Northwest Campus Auditorium
Following the film, a panel discussion will include Marcus Hunter, chair of African-American studies at UCLA; Brenda Stevenson, Nickoll Family Endowed Chair in History at UCLA; and Funmilola Fagbamila, adjunct professor of Pan-African studies at UCLA.
In conjunction with Reel Talk: Films that speak to MLK, and MLK remembrance day events at UCLA.

Thursday, April 19
Centering the student experience: How students experience and organize around sexual harassment
1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
UCLA School of Law, Room 1420
Moderated by Maria Blandizzi, UCLA’s dean for students. 

From scholarship to policy: How women’s studies is shaping the debate
(Closed session)
4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Friday, April 20
Flag Project
All day
De Neve Plaza
Organized by the Sexual Health Coalition and Bruin Consent Coalition

My Beautiful Sex
All day
Kerckhoff Art Gallery
Organized by the Sexual Health Coalition and Bruin Consent Coalition