Berkeley law school dean resigns amid sex harassment lawsuit

(AP) — The dean of the University of California, Berkeley law school resigned Thursday amid faculty outrage that he had been allowed to remain in the position after a campus investigation substantiated sexual harassment allegations from his executive assistant.

Under the terms of the university's tenure rules, professors only can be fired by Berkeley's Academic Senate, and "Choudhry remains a member of the school's faculty at present," campus officials said in a statement.

The revelations involving Choudhry came nearly five months after a prominent astronomer at Berkeley, Geoffrey Marcy, resigned amid a national outcry over revelations that the school had substantiated sexual harassment complaints from former female students without demoting or suspending him from his job.