Sacramento State, lawsuits begin here.

An unfair alteration of the school’s motto? Perhaps, but it has some merit.

Sexual harassment and gender discrimination are ugly realities that will never go away, but must always be fought against to prevent environments from becoming hostile.

Sac State is losing those fights.

During the last seven years, the California State University Committee meeting records show more than $1 million has been paid out to settle cases of sexual harassment alone. This problem isn’t just isolated to one area of campus, as the allegations that led to the settlements occurred in three different departments on campus.

Sexual harassment doesn’t just harm women, as a male professor who filed charges of racial discrimination along with sexual harassment claimed he faced retaliation for filing complaints. CSU Committee records show the professor received $165,000 in 2004.

The most egregious case has resulted in three language professors from Sac State receiving a combined $900,000 from the CSU system due to alleged conduct by one of their colleagues, Spanish professor Wilfrido Corral. Corral dropped his lawsuit of racial discrimination against CSU this month and will no longer challenge his termination.

One of Corral’s students received $15,000 in a settlement claim against the CSU due to alleged harassment which took place more than four years ago. The actuality of Corral teaching this spring is atrocious.

Legal matters are convoluted, complex matters that do take a long time, but it shouldn’t take this long. There needs to be a quicker way of dealing with claims of sexual harassment on all CSU campuses. CSU committee meeting records show it is a problem that has resulted in settlements on other campuses as well.

Sac State’s homepage has links leading to a complaint form for students and faculty, if they can find it. Nobody should have to go searching for the form, it should readily be available next to other forms in every department building on campus.

How many times must lawsuits be filed before it becomes obvious the current way of dealing with serious allegations of misconduct isn’t working? Having just one case resulting in a huge settlement shows the system is flawed.

“Cases like the Corral case are really more of an aberration than something that regularly happens and the University is always exploring additional avenues to get information out to all faculty, staff and students about harassment,” said Kim Nava, director of news services for public affairs on behalf of Human Resources.

Paying more than $1 million in settlements from this university alone should be a wake-up call to both Sac State and CSU administrations that major changes are needed. CSU committee records show at times there are more than 100 pending cases against the CSU for conditions on one of the 23 campuses.

Having more than 450,000 combined students and faculty members in the CSU means there should be more than 450,000 people who go to campuses without fear.

The campus administration can’t look over the shoulder of every faculty member to make sure he or she is not acting inappropriately. However, the settlements over the years make it clear that accusations of sexual harassment are not dealt with effectively.

Had something been done about Corral in a more timely fashion, three professors wouldn’t have had to deal with an alledgely hostile work environment. CSU would also have saved nearly $1 million in settlement costs.

AB 1825 mandates that all employers with at least 50 employees in the state of California give managers sexual harassment training. The training must not be working at CSU or taken seriously enough because there are far too many cases across the state.

All professors would benefit from taking time to receive training – at the least it couldn’t hurt and at best, it could prevent a professor from making a life-altering mistake.

In addition to sexual harassment problems, two current allegations of gender discrimination are making their way through the court system. The two professors making the allegations work in two separate departments.

One professor won a gender discrimination case in 2009 after showing nearly all of her male colleagues had higher salaries than her, despite similar credentials. Court records show the only male professor who made less was an ethnic minority.

Salaries can be based upon a number of factors, including outside experience, academic achievement and initial contract bargaining. Gender should never be one of those criteria, but there has been enough of a disparity to warrant settlements and more litigation.

Sac State is an institution of higher education filled with brilliant minds. Archaic, discriminatory atmospheres existing long enough on campus to warrant lawsuits is appalling, disappointing and expensive.

An extra $1 million wouldn’t solve the system’s budget problems, but it should have gone to paying professors to teach as opposed to paying them for having to deal with unjustifiable behavior.

All students and faculty should come to campus thinking about their classes, meetings and other tasks they have planned for the day. Not one minute should be spent thinking about ways to avoid somebody while on campus.

Walking around campus outside is beautiful, it should never be ugly inside the halls at Sac State. A public condemnation of sexual harassment and a promise to do everything possible to address claims as soon as possible is needed from the administration.