Grad student accuses regent of groping her
Woman speaks publicly about alleged 2014 incident, which she reported in 2018
SAN FRANCISCO » A UC Santa Cruz graduate student has publicly accused the University of California Board of Regents chairman of groping her nearly five years ago.
Los Angeles native Rebecca Ora, 37, made the allegation during the public comment period of Wednesday’s board meeting at UC San Francisco. Ora said the regent, George Kief fer, took a group of students to dinner Nov. 18, 2014, to win its support in a tuition battle with the state.
“At one point in the conversation, I was shocked to feel pressure on my upper thigh and looked down incredulous to find Kieffer’s hand firmly grasping my leg,” Ora said. “This persisted throughout the evening. I was unsettled, uncomfortable and felt powerless to stop this figure of authority from putting his hands on my body. I told myself we were discussing the tuition of hundreds of thousands and I should not make a scene.”
Kieffer, 72, told this news organization the allegation isn’t true.
“The university has a process for handling allegations like this,” Kieffer said in an email. “Both the complainant and I are involved in that process, and I have total confidence in that process.”
In an interview Thursday, Ora said that same process is what prompted her to speak out publicly, echoing her comments during the meeting that the process is lengthy, difficult to navigate and biased in favor of “wealthy and powerful regents.”
After she reported the alleged incident to the university in July 2018, the process began with an “informal resolution” phase involving a panel of three regents.
In February, Ora submitted a list of demands to a mediator — including Kieffer’s resignation — as part of the informal resolution process. But she did not receive a response until June, according to documents reviewed by the Mercury News, and the response indicated that Kieffer would neither resign nor “restrict his participation on the Board of Regents.”
The process since has moved to a formal investigation for which UC has hired an outside attorney. Ora said the case has moved slowly and provided her with few emotional or logistical resources.
The university offered
Ora an adviser and said they agreed the review process needed improvement.
“I know this has been a long process, and difficult for you — I’m sorry for that. Please let me know how you would like to proceed,” wrote Suzanne Taylor, the UC Title IX director, when she sent the June response.
Now the case moves to an investigation phase, Ora said, nearly a year and a half after she first made the report. UC spokesperson Claire Doan said that she could not comment on the case, citing student privacy laws, but that “the university promptly responded as soon as it became aware of the report and has retained an outside investigator who will determine the facts in this matter.”
Ora said frustrations with the lengthy and confusing process inspired her to speak out publicly Wednesday, even addressing the president of the UC system, Janet Napolitano, by name.
“This is not about two people or several inches on my leg; it’s about the health of the system,” Ora told this news organization Thursday. “I’m relieved because a lot of people have been expressing the same indignation that I have in the past year and a half, and my hope is that other people pick up the fight.”
Neither Napolitano nor anyone on the board responded to Ora’s allegation during the meeting. Kieffer appeared to exit the room shortly after Ora spoke, she said.
Ora told the board she felt “alone and illequipped” to report the alleged groping until about a year and a half ago.
She also was motivated to step forward by other instances of sexual misconduct involving UC Santa Cruz professors Gopal Balakrishnan and Dimitris Achlioptas.
“I tried to forget it had happened, only to watch one powerful man after another in the UC system be revealed as a serial abuser,” said Ora, adding that she experiences regular panic attacks and has fallen behind in completing her doctorate in film and digital media.
The alleged groping predates a board policy that requires regents to undergo a training program for sexual harassment prevention.
The policy was introduced after former Regent Norman J. Pattiz was caught on tape in October 2016 asking comedian Heather McDonald if he could hold her breasts. Pattiz stepped down from the board in 2017.
Kieffer, a Los Angelesbased partner at the national law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP, was appointed to the board by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009. His term expires in 2021.
In a 2018 interview with the Daily Californian, Kieffer told a student reporter that the allegations against Pattiz were a “new issue” for the regents that thrust them suddenly into the spotlight.
“It put us in a situation where we have a regent denying what has been said, a newspaper saying something and a reaction from the public and students saying that we should take action. … From the outside, it was more simple than what it was in reality,” Kieffer said.
Ora concluded her comments to the board by calling for Kieffer’s prompt resignation, including telling Kieffer to “get the (expletive) off this board.”
But she reiterated on Thursday that the public’s focus shouldn’t be on a throwaway curse word in a board meeting.
“What I think is obscene is that someone with more power than me would put his hand on my body, and that there’s a system that is supporting that — that’s what’s obscene,” Ora said.