Former Dean Sujit Choudhry sues UC Berkeley officials of racial discrimination

Over a second investigation of sexual harassment allegations.

Sujit Choudhry, the former dean of UC Berkeley’s law school, filed a lawsuitThursday, accusing school officials of singling him out because of his race for a second investigation of sexual harassment allegations.

In the federal discrimination suit filed in San Francisco, Choudhry said the UC system treated white faculty members and administrators found to have committed sexual misconduct more leniently while threatening him with a ban from campus and loss of tenure, reported the Associated Press.

Choudhry, who is an Indian American, resigned as dean in March amid faculty outrage that he had been allowed to remain in his position after a campus investigation substantiated sexual harassment allegations by his executive assistant.

The assistant, Tyann Sorrell, alleged in a lawsuit that same month that her boss had kissed, hugged and touched her repeatedly but was punished with only a temporary pay cut and orders to undergo counseling after the investigation.

A written report from UC Berkeley’s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination concluded that Choudhry’s behavior had violated campus sexual harassment policies.

In his lawsuit, Choudhry said officials opened a second investigation of the same allegations of misconduct after Sorrell filed the lawsuit and reports surfaced that the UC system had mishandled cases of serious sexual misconduct, AP reported.

The lawsuit names the University of California regents and system President Janet Napolitano. It seeks unspecified damages and a court order stopping the second disciplinary process.

Choudhry is among several Berkeley employees since 2015 to face sexual harassment allegations substantiated by the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination. His lawsuit says the purpose of the second investigation was to distract from the university’s failure to punish white faculty and administrators found to have committed “appalling sexual misconduct.”

The Daily California reported in March, UC President Janet Napolitano, who is named in the lawsuit, called for a second disciplinary hearing for Choudhry, which could result in Choudhry being fired. He initially was punished with a 10 percent cut to his dean salary for one year, among other sanctions, and campus officials were widely criticized for implementing punishments that many have called too lenient.

The lawsuit alleges that “no one has ever suggested that Professor Choudhry’s conduct was sexually motivated or predatory” and accuses Napolitano of using Choudhry’s case to “improve the University’s image as well as her own.”

“By targeting Professor Choudhry, who is of South Asian descent and a non-U.S. citizen, the University hopes to deflect attention from its failure to meaningfully punish Caucasian faculty and administrators who were found to have committed appalling sexual misconduct, and from the fact that it deserted Ms. Sorrell,” the lawsuit alleged.

In addition to the UC regents and Napolitano, Choudhry’s lawsuit also names UC Berkeley administrators Chancellor Nicholas Dirks, interim Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Carol Christ, Vice Provost for the Faculty Benjamin Hermalin and former vice provost for the faculty Janet Broughton as defendants.

“At this point what can be said is that the University intends to mount a vigorous and successful defense,” said UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof in an email, to the Daily California.