UC Berkeley Suspends Nezar AlSayyad for Sexual Harassment

UC Berkeley has suspended Nezar AlSayyad—an architecture professor and, until 2014, chair of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies for nearly two decades—for three years for sexually harassing a graduate student. During his suspension, AlSayyad is barred from non-public areas of the campus and cannot teach or supervise new graduate students. In 2016, Campus Watch wrote about AlSayyad’s case and that of former UCLA prof. Gabriel Piterberg, who, after a similar suspension, was fired in March.

Cinnamon Stillwell analyzes Middle East studies academia in West Coast colleges and universities for Campus Watch. A San Francisco Bay Area native and graduate of San Francisco State University, she is a columnist, blogger, and social media analyst. Ms. Stillwell, a former contributing political columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, has written on a wide variety of topics, including the political atmosphere in American higher education, and has appeared as a guest on television and talk radio.
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