Cal Maritime Academy in Vallejo has come under fire for allegations of rape, sexual harassment and hate speech against trans students and women.
The allegations were first reported by the Los Angeles Times. According to the report, the misconduct has been happening for years, both on campus and during training cruises that last several weeks at sea.
Cal Maritime officials confirmed Wednesday night that they have been looking into and have taken measures to address the allegations.
University officials said in part: "Our administration, faculty and staff are working day-to-day to ensure that they are moving their diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) and Title IX initiatives forward. We have engaged in efforts to access our environment, allocated additional resources and adding programming and staff, including a director of inclusion."
The university, one of the smaller schools in the 23-campus California State University system, also wrote about the opening of an inclusion center and training to help reset behaviors.
Student Sophie Scopazzi told NBC Bay Area she was very upset after reading the university’s response.
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Scopazzi said that she fought for more than a year to eliminate gender-based policies regarding grooming and accused administrators of failing to discipline cadets who compared trans women to a "castrated dog."
“They're happy to take credit for all of our work," she said. "We had to force them to do the right thing. And then they also try to whitewash it later with, 'Oh! Look at us doing all this wonderful work. We should be proud of the work we have accomplished. We’ve done this work despite them, they’ve been roadblocks.'"
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Scopazzi said that she is also upset that the university has not tried to reach out to her after she shared her story with the LA Times. She said only the school's associated students have reached out. In fact, they held an emergency meeting Wednesday night to write a letter in support of the students involved in the LA Times report.
Scopazzi said she and other trans students are hoping the university’s president and vice president are forced to step down.
University President Thomas Cropper recently announced he was stepping down next year.
