Report: Hostile workplace for women at University of California, Los Angeles, disease center

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES — An investigation found that female faculty at the Alzheimer’s disease research center at the University of California, Los Angeles, worked under hostile conditions, according to a newspaper report.

In a letter to research center staff, a UCLA administrator wrote that an outside investigator concluded some men discriminated against three women, including retaliation for reporting problems with research protocol. The work environment at the center that specializes in the neurological disorder “compromises our research, teaching and patient care,” wrote Jonathan Hiatt, vice dean for faculty at the university, the Los Angeles Times reported (http://lat.ms/1DtPjsT ).

The letter, written in March, also said administrators did not properly respond to past complaints of discrimination. The letter identified neither the women nor the men whom the investigator concluded had violated campus rules.

The investigative report was finished in October. It said that for about a decade the center had “a climate of conflict, tension, hostility and mistrust” and the women were treated in an “unprofessional, demeaning manner,” the newspaper reported. The center is part of UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine.

A medical school spokeswoman said the letter involved personnel matters, so she could not comment beyond saying that the university opposes any workplace discrimination.

“The letter was intended as an internal communication to describe the measures taken by the university in response to serious concerns brought forward in good faith by female members of the faculty,” spokeswoman Dale Tate wrote in a statement.

[Source]: Daily Journal