Hey, Teacher, leave them kids alone

There’s no question that a University of California professor committed egregious sexual harassment, leading the head of his campus and the chancellor of the University of California system to terminate his employment and make him ineligible for emeritus status. But one act of harassment occurred 100 miles from his campus, which he claimed absolved him of any rule violation. And the other sexual encounter occurred with a girl who had graduated two days earlier, meaning she wasn’t a student at the time. Without notice that he could be punished for conduct far away from campus or with an ex-student, he argued it would be fundamentally unfair to punish him. But, in the face of this misconduct, the court was having none of it. 

Complaints mount

Dr. Gopal Balakrishnan attended Cornell University. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and in 2000 published a well-received scholarly book. After holding several teaching positions at higher learning institutions, he became an associate professor in 2006 at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) History of Consciousness Department. In 2015, he was promoted to tenured professor.

In 2017, an anonymous letter was published online, accusing Balakrishnan of engaging in a pattern of sexual intimidation, harassment, and assault against young women and gender nonconforming people during his time as a UCSC professor. The letter contained seven anonymous, firsthand accounts of his alleged abuse and called on the university to act.