Warning: This article contains mentions of sexual harassment and assault

UC Davis establishes new Underground Scholars Program

UC Davis launched a new Underground Scholars Program in the fall and held an open house on Jan. 24, according to a press release from UC Davis.

Underground Scholars aims to support students who were formerly incarcerated or have been directly impacted by the justice system. The new program is based on the efforts of  and will work in conjunction with the UC Davis Underground Scholars Initiative, a student organization founded in 2019.

The program will provide grants to help students with academic and basic needs, as well as attend professional development and community advocacy conferences. Funding is provided by an annual $490,000 state allocation over the course of three years.

Program director Joshua Johnson told UC Davis media that the program will help UC Davis students navigate reentry and reintegration and find community on campus. Johnson served over a decade in prison, then earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology from Sacramento State.

“An education changes a person’s perception of what is possible,” Johnson told UC Davis.

San Diego County Supervisor accused of retaliation against professor after sexual harassment allegations

UC San Diego professor Juli Beth Hinds filed a legal tort accusing former San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher of retaliation after she filed a Title IX report against him, according to CBS 8.

According to Hinds’ tort, Fletcher terminated contracts the county had with Hinds’ consulting firm days after Hinds filed a Title IX claim against him in April 2023. 

Fletcher faced separate allegations a week prior to Hinds’ filing after San Diego Metropolitan Transit System employee Grecia Figueroa filed a lawsuit alleging that Fletcher sexually harassed and assaulted her on multiple occasions while serving as chair of the transit system’s board of directors. 

Hinds claimed that after this lawsuit was filed, she was approached by a student during her office hours accusing Fletcher of “harassing conduct,” according to the tort obtained by CBS 8. After she raised the issue to university administration, she was told to file a Title IX report. Two weeks later, Hinds said the county told her they were discontinuing her contract.

“[T]he county instructed UCSD … to eliminate [Hinds’s contracts] in retaliation for [Hinds’s] obligatory filing of a Title IX complaint against Fletcher, the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors for the county, on behalf of her student who reported his harassing conduct,” Hinds’s claim reads.

Hinds is seeking nearly $280,000 in lost wages.

A version of this article appeared on p. 2 of the Feb. 1, 2023, print edition of the Daily Nexus.

Sindhu Ananthavel

Sindhu Ananthavel (she/they) is the Lead News Editor for the 2023-24 school year. Previously, Ananthavel was the Deputy News Editor for the 2022-23 school year, the Community Outreach News Editor for the 2021-22 school year and an assistant news editor for the 2021-22 school year. She can be reached at news@dailynexus.com.