Record of incident of grievance
On the date of first meeting (12/18/13) at 1:15pm, I interviewed with John Searle and his long
time assistant Jennifer. He looked at my application and asked me what community college I
went to, and if I had plans to go to graduate school. During this time Searle asked if I had any
plans to have children soon (since I am married), and I said no. I did not hear back about this job
and assumed the position was filled.
The second meeting was on (3/10/14) at 12:05pm. I went to John Searle’s office with my
application for employment a second time. I asked Searle if he remembers me, and stated my
name. Searle said, “Yes I remember you. Yes you were very good, but you’re recently married.” I
replied “Yes, two years now, not so recent.” Searle said, “I just worry that you won’t be as
dedicated to the job. I’ve been married 50 years. Looks like you have a 3.6GPA and got an A- in
my class.” In response I pleaded that I am here at Berkeley to focus on school, I plan on moving
on to graduate school in philosophy, and I was at my previous job for 6 years. Then Searle
introduced me to his assistant, however I forgot her name. He asked me where I transferred from,
we had a short conversation about that and he told me he had to finish his lunch. I then left.
On Tuesday, March 11 at 9:35am I asked a graduate student if I could talk to her outside of class.
I informed her of the incident and she suggested I report it. We made a plan to meet on Thursday,
March 13 to talk so she could inform me my options for reporting this incident.
Thursday, March 13 I met with said graduate student and she gave me the Berkeley Campus
Grievance Procedure and suggested I talk to the Student Ombuds about reporting the incident.
She informed me that discrimination based on marital status is illegal.
The evening of March 13, I received an email from Searle asking me if I can come work for him
the next morning. Given the previous two exchanges with him I was uncomfortable taking the
research position, so I declined his offer.