UC Irvine English professor Ron Carlson, a winner of prestigious literary awards whose writing has been published in Esquire and the New York Times Magazine, has resigned from the university following a report alleging he engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor in the 1970s.
The report was made public earlier this month by the Hotchkiss School, a Connecticut boarding school for students in grades nine through 12. School officials commissioned an independent investigation of potential sexual misconduct by employees through the school’s history, which dates to 1891, after a former student filed a lawsuit in 2015 and others then came forward, the report said.
Carlson, an English teacher at Hotchkiss from 1971 to 1981, was one of seven men with allegations against them that the report called “substantiated.”
Carlson could not be reached for comment Wednesday. He had taught at UCI since 2006.
UCI spokeswoman Patricia Harriman said in a written statement: “We first heard about the report when it was made public through the media several days ago, and are disturbed by the conduct it described. Upon learning about the report, we accepted Professor Carlson’s immediate resignation. There have been no formal reports of similar conduct during his employment at UCI.”
Carlson’s departure is the second this summer involving alleged impropriety by a high-profile UCI faculty member. In July, biological sciences professor Francisco Ayala – who has given more than $10 million to the school – resigned after a university investigation into sexual harassment allegations by four women. In a statement at the time, Ayala described his conduct not as sexual but as “the good manners of a European gentleman” and said he regrets that it made some colleagues uncomfortable.
After growing up and attending college in Utah, Carlson, 70, began teaching and publishing his writing, according to a 2009 interview with The Orange County Register and a resume posted online by Arizona State University, where he taught from 1987 to about 2006.
During his tenure at Hotchkiss, where he was also a “dorm parent,” the school’s report says he met an unnamed female sophomore student. It is alleged he paid her special attention and “kissed and fondled” her when they were alone, carrying on the relationship for the rest of the school year, according to the student and classmates who were told of or noticed her relationship with Carlson at the time, the report says.
Carlson declined to be interviewed for the investigation, but the student said that when confronted years later about his behavior, “Carlson did not deny that he hadabused her and instead appeared to blame his behavior on drinking,” the report says.
Carlson began to win literary acclaim when he moved on to teaching college, winning a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 1985 and later being published in the O. Henry and Pushcart Prize anthologies. He has written about a dozen novels and short story collections, as well as contributing work to dozens of magazines and anthologies.
UC Irvine officials would not comment beyond the written statement. Hotchkiss School officials did not return a call for comment, but shared a public statement from the board of trustees president and head of the school that said officials have “made the appropriate reports to law enforcement and to any known subsequent employers” of the men identified in the report, as well as removing their names from any scholarships and prizes and banning them from campus.
“We apologize to the survivors with humility — understanding that words cannot measure our sadness and regret or erase the harm that they endured,” trustees president Jean Weinberg Rose said in a statement. “We will do everything within our power to ensure that students now and in the future will be cared for and safe.”
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