Berkeley moves to fire assistant coach over sex harassment

By Lisa Leff, Associated Press

Monday, March 14, 2016 | 1:32 p.m.

SAN FRANCISCO — An assistant men's basketball coach at the University of California, Berkeley, became the latest employee found to have violated the school's sexual harassment policy, drawing swift and serious sanctions Monday after complaints that punishment was too lenient in previous cases.

Head coach Cuonzo Martin immediately moved to fire the assistant, Yann Hufnagel, and to bar him from traveling with the team during the upcoming NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, the athletic department said in a statement.

"You're talking about a guy who's part of your staff and a family member," Martin, who is in his second year coaching the California Golden Bears, told reporters during a conference call. "We continue to push forward. It's not an easy thing, but we'll find our way."

The person who accused Hufnagel of sexual harassment is not affiliated with the school, university spokesman Dan Mogulof said. Hufnagel didn't immediately reply to an email seeking comment on Martin's decision to initiate termination proceedings.

Hufnagel, 33, is at least the fourth campus employee in the last year to face sexual harassment allegations that were substantiated during investigations by UC Berkeley's Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination.

The university has faced criticism for what some saw as its light-handed discipline in the three earlier cases, involving the campus' vice chancellor for research, a prominent astronomer and the dean of the law school. All three men initially were allowed to keep their jobs but ended up resigning under pressure.

In response to the mounting disclosures, University of California President Janet Napolitano announced on Friday that she is appointing a systemwide committee to review and approve all proposed penalties for high-level administrators who violate sexual assault and harassment policies. Previously, it had been up to individual campuses to impose sanctions on their own officials.

Napolitano, the former U.S. Homeland Security secretary, also took the unusual step of directing UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks to ban former Berkeley Law Dean Sujit Choudhry from campus and to start disciplinary proceedings against him through the Academic Senate.

Sujit, whose former executive assistant sued him over sexual harassment and who resigned as dean last week, remains on the faculty because the university's tenure rules say faculty members only can be fired by that panel.

Napolitano also ordered Dirks to remove former Vice Chancellor of Research Graham Fleming from the administrative position he has held since he resigned last April amid harassment allegations from the top assistant vice chancellor in his department.

"Prompt and effective responses to findings of sexual harassment and sexual violence are key to changing behavior," Napolitano wrote to Dirks.

Napolitano also is awaiting recommendations for strengthening the process for reporting, investigating and issuing sanctions in sexual misconduct cases involving faculty members.

This was Hufnagel's second year as an assistant coach. He worked with the university's guards last year and the team's backcourt was considered one of the best in the Pac 12 conference, the school said.

Before a year at Vanderbilt University and his two years at UC Berkeley, Hufnagel spent four years as an assistant basketball at Harvard University. He was credited with helping develop guard Jeremy Lin, a Harvard graduate who now plays for the NBA's Charlotte Hornets.

The NCAA tournament selection committee has made the 23-10 Bears a fourth seed in the South Region. It's the school's first appearance in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament since 2013. They face Hawaii Friday.

Associated Press writer Paul Elias contributed to this story.