SSU and CSU system faced with new lawsuits

On April 28, two new lawsuits alleging sexual harassment and retaliation have been filed against Sonoma State University faculty members and administrators, California State University system and its board of trustees.

The lawsuit was filed by Clea Felien, an assistant professor with Sonoma State’s Arts & Hu manities School. In the complaint, she claims that she was made a target of unwanted sexual ad vances by a tenured professor within her department named Nathan Haenlein. The Press Democrat reports that Felien’s harassment began during her recruitment in 2017 and continued through 2019.

SSU Interim President Mike Lee, Haenlein, the CSU Board of Trustees, Chancellor Jolene Koester, former Art & Art History Department Chair Christine Renaudin, and Hollis Robbins, former Arts & Humanities dean were named as defendants in the suit.

A separate lawsuit filed by Robbins on April 27 alleged sexual harassment by McCallum and retaliation by Sakaki, according to the Press Democrat.