UC Berkeley settles sex harassment claim against Middle East scholar for $80,000

Nezar AlSayyad, a tenured architecture professor and an internationally recognized Middle East scholar, remains employed at UC Berkeley more than a year after an independent investigator determined that he sexually harassed his former student, Eva Hagberg Fisher, from 2012 to 2014.

The university has given AlSayyad no classes to teach since fall 2016, but he continues to receive $211,000 a year. He has taught at UC Berkeley since 1985.

Student protests erupted against AlSayyad and the campus administration in November 2016, after The Chronicle first reported the investigator’s findings. Dozens of graduate students also signed a petition demanding that the administration revoke AlSayyad’s tenure if a separate investigation by the Faculty Senate determined that the professor violated the Faculty Code of Conduct. ...