Professor West Comments for BuzzFeed on Universities and Sexual Harassment

Professor Martha S. West commented for BuzzFeed on the phenomenon of universities “passing the harasser,” allowing faculty accused of sexual harassment at one university to find employment at another without anyone ever learning about their prior history of harassment.

Professor West’s comments focus on the need for search committees to do a better job by contacting faculty at the prior campus who are not the listed references for the candidate and by asking about any reputation the candidate may have among students.

"They need to call more people; they need to call people other than the faculty that he gives as references, and they need to ask reputational questions," West said. "The key is to ask people who are not his friends in the prior department."

Professor West taught courses on Employment Discrimination, Labor Law, and Sex-based Discrimination at UC Davis School of Law. Her research has focused on discrimination against women faculty in higher education.