The UC Student Association (UCSA) passed a second resolution in response to sexual harassment claims against Regent Norman Pattiz. The resolution, passed at the Oct. 14-15 UCSA board meeting, calls for the dismissal of Pattiz from the Board of Regents. The UCSA released the first resolution in January 2017.
Pattiz has been on the Board of Regents since 2001 and is also the chairman of Courtside Entertainment Group, a production company for podcasts and radio shows. The alleged incident occurred when Heather McDonald was taping a bra commercial at a PodcastOne studio. McDonald claims Pattiz asked if he could hold her breasts. She later released an audio recording of the incident and left PodcastOne.
“UCSA also believes that this is the perfect time to consider reforming the Board of Regents. Regents should not have 12-year terms and there should be a method for removing them in cases like this, of egregious behavior,” said Judith Gutierrez, UCSA president and UC Santa Cruz Student Union Assembly vice president of external affairs, in an email.
In response to Pattiz’s behavior, the Board of Regents unanimously passed a policy stating regents must now comply with ethical conduct and sexual harassment policy in both their public and private lives. Pattiz is still on the Board of Regents and was given a vote on the policy change.
“Our resolution calls for the UC to immediately ban Regent Pattiz from campus[es] when he is not at regent meetings, because we feel he is an immediate threat to our community,” Gutierrez said in an email. “We also call on the Board of Regents to remove him as chair of any committees and, when possible, deny his right to vote on regental decisions.”
