Why hasn’t Kristie Koski made tenure?

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• Shaw advised him to report Koski to Daniel Gray, the director of academic employment and labor relations in the academic affairs office. Gray has since retired.

• Koski claims that the university has not addressed her tenure appeal. But it is re-running her application for tenure, which now includes the official letter of censure.

• In May 2023, the chemistry department again voted in Koski’s favor. Since the first go-round, there is a new chemistry department chair, a new dean, and new faculty senate committees. But 5 months after the second vote, there is no certainty that Koski will make tenure.

• On Jan. 15, 2020, the full chemistry department faculty gathered to vote on Koski’s application for tenure. A committee of three professors had reviewed her application and presented their recommendation to the faculty. The committee’s recommendation was a strong endorsement for Koski’s promotion, according to people who were in the room.

• After the review committee’s presentation, Shaw distributed a two-page letter written by James DiCaprio, the school’s associate director of academic employment and labor relations at the time. It described details of the allegations against Koski and asserted that, based on Gray’s investigation, she had violated the university’s faculty code of conduct. A judge would later rule that decisions about faculty code of conduct violations should be made by the academic senate. Koski’s lawsuit asserts that Kass and O’Rourke encouraged Shaw to share the letter.

• Instead, on Aug. 6, Shaw reported to HDAPP Koski’s concerns about the graduate student’s behavior as well as the student’s allegations, which the suit describes as “bullying and intimidation by Dr. Koski.” Koski’s suit claims that Gray contacted HDAPP “and told them to expect a false report” from her.

• e investigated the first graduate student’s allegation that Koski’s report of potential sexual harassment constituted bullying. Philip Kass, the UC Davis vice provost for academic affairs, had directed Gray to look into those allegations, according to Koski’s lawsuit.

• More than a year later, when a committee of the UC Davis Academic Senate considered the allegations against Koski, it decided that only the call about the lab checkout was inappropriate; her report about the first student’s possible sexual harassment was not.