Sensitivity Training lags

Departments slow to conduct required harassment seminars

Many student employees and staff members at Cal State Long Beach have still not received training in discrimination and harassment sensitivity more than a month after their supervisors were told to provide such training.

Under an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, CSULB administrators, deans and department chairmen were required to relay to all staff and some students an outline of the university's new anti-discrimination policy.

"Some of them have done it and some of them haven't," campus Affirmative Action director Karen Alvarado said Thursday. She would not say how many departments - or which ones - have not provided the mandatory training.

"It's very difficult to get people together on campus for training because of differences in schedules," Alvarado said. However, she said, the College of the Arts has completed "practically all" of its training.

Alvarado said she must provide the Office for Civil Rights a list of people who participated in a September seminar on the new policy. The list, due this week, must also include names of all students and staff who have attended the seminar.

According to Alvarado, not all students must be trained to recognize discrimination and sexual harassment on campus and file complaints. She said that supervisors are responsible for determining which of their student employees need to be informed of the policy.

"That's discretional to the person in charge whether (students) get the training," Alvarado said in a phone interview.

Although the complete list of those who were trained is due, the OCR has promised to extend the training deadline if Alvarado can prove that the university has put forth a "reasonable effort" to finish the training.

The dean of the College of Business Administration, C. J. Walter, said he does not know how many people have been trained within his college. Walter added that department chairmen within the college will decide what training will be necessary.