Kristen Glasgow uses the office in her mother’s West Los Angeles home as a library as she finishes her dissertation. Stepping foot on UCLA’s campus gives her panic attacks.
“I can’t go back,” said Glasgow, a doctoral candidate in history.
The fear stems from an incident that Glasgow says took place one evening in February, 2008, as she strolled through a UCLA parking lot with history professor Gabriel Piterberg, to whom she’d been introduced two hours earlier.
What Glasgow says happened next was never adjudicated criminally, and Piterberg has never admitted fault. But for Glasgow, the trauma is raw: She says he uttered a pickup line before pushing her against his car and kissing her.
“He shoved his tongue in my mouth,” said Glasgow, who at the time was going through a divorce. “Like any predator, I think he knew I was vulnerable.”
Piterberg did not respond to requests for comment.
Glasgow tried, she said, to ignore the encounter. But in 2013, when she heard a second student made similar allegations against Piterberg, she came forward and filed a harassment claim.
She says the university’s reaction left her traumatized all over again.
The school, she said, ignored her complaints and tried to treat fellow graduate student Nefertiti Takla’s allegations as a “one-off” incident.
UCLA officials did not respond to multiple calls and emails.
But in 2015, Glasgow and Takla together sued the school for violating their civil rights by not adequately following through on their complaints, according to documents released by the University of California. They settled last September; Glasgow receiving $110,000 and a fellowship to finish her dissertation, and Takla receiving $350,000.
At the conclusion of the school’s investigation into the allegation made by Takla, Piterberg was suspended for a quarter and forced to pay a $3,000 fine, according to the school’s settlement.
When Piterberg returned to UCLA, in January, students protested.
Glasgow remains frustrated. She says her dream of teaching is gone. And though she says the University of California’s response to harassment claims is improving, she believes academia, in general, remains a “boys club.”
At 49, Glasgow says she may have found a new passion – being a voice for those traumatized by sexual violence.
“We need to stop saying ‘she was acting this way’ or ‘she was looking for a husband’ and justifying predators’ behaviors,” she said.
“I am so willing to be that imperfect victim.”