U.S. officials alerted to Cal Maritime issues nearly a year before starting review, records show
Federal maritime officials waited nearly a year to launch a review of how California State University’s Maritime Academy handled sexual misconduct cases after the agency’s top leader received an email that described cadets’ allegations of misconduct on the campus and during training cruises, which typically occur on the federal Maritime Administration’s ships.
Records reviewed by The Times show that in August 2022, a former Cal Maritime student emailed the head of the agency with concerns over “an epidemic of sexual assaults” and discrimination on campus and at sea that university officials allegedly mishandled or outright ignored. The email did not provide specifics of the alleged misconduct but described the experiences of students who had detailed their accounts on a website, which was also included in the email.
“On cruise and on campus students reported being ignored by academy administrators,” the email states. “One cadet who was touched inappropriately by a corps officer wrote: ‘Two days later, when I was in the commandant’s office literally begging them to acknowledge what had happened, I was stonewalled, silenced and asked if I want to just go home (meaning failing cruise) – be a quitter. I said no.’”
The message also described expressions of hate and slurs that transgender cadets alleged on the campus.
“Without some sort of intervention the situation will likely stagnate,” the email said. “I hope you can find some way to increase the pressure on the campus administration.”
The school did not report the sexual misconduct allegations to the U.S. Maritime Administration, which owns the Training Ship Golden Bear.
Top officials at the Maritime Administration discussed the email. Roughly five hours after receiving the email, records show that Administrator Ann Phillips forwarded the message to six higher-ups at MARAD. Deputy administrator Lucinda Lessley looped in the agency’s director of civil rights, Daryl Hart, and asked whether “follow up was required to assess whether we have any duties under Title IX” — the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination. Hart forwarded the email to another official the next day before the email exchange ended. MARAD said it did not have any further records to provide.
MARAD initiated a compliance review of the campus 11 months later, after a 2023 Times investigation revealed that the university had not reported allegations of rape and sexual assault aboard the Golden Bear training ship, a 500-foot vessel owned by the federal maritime authority and used to train future mariners.
MARAD, a Department of Transportation agency, does not oversee the campus. But it provides some federal funding and, as part of a longstanding agreement for use of its training ship, requires the campus to report complaints of sexual misconduct aboard the vessel. The agency said it was concerned about the claims raised in The Times’ report and would assess whether the university followed federal nondiscrimination laws during a compliance review. The agency also said it would review whether the campus followed required policies in reporting complaints. That review is still underway.
The university had completed a review of training cruise culture in early 2022, months before the email. University officials had announced changes to improve the culture and complaint reporting process. But students and faculty members told The Times that problems persisted. Two recent state laws intend to hold the maritime university and others within California State University’s 23-campus network accountable to the legislature when it comes to strengthening sexual misconduct and harassment policies.
The alum who sent the email told The Times that MARAD did not contact him until September 2023 — more than a year after he’d sent the email. Cal Maritime said it was “unable to respond” to questions about whether MARAD contacted the campus about the email. The campus president at the time retired before the review began.
Women and trans and nonbinary cadets at Cal State University Maritime Academy describe a pervasive culture of misogyny, sexual abuse and harassment.
“MARAD does not own, govern, or operate state maritime academies,” the agency said. “As previously reported, pursuant to our obligations under Title IX and Title VI, MARAD’s Office of Civil Rights had already planned to initiate periodic reviews of [state maritime academy] policies and procedures for addressing complaints to ensure that they are handled in a manner consistent with applicable law. Cal Maritime was selected as the first [state maritime academy] to receive one of these reviews.”
By comparison, records show that MARAD promptly launched an investigation — which it said is different than a campus compliance review — into another state maritime academy, Texas A&M Maritime Academy, after receiving an anonymous complaint of sexual assault and discrimination aboard its training ship during a summer cruise.
MARAD funds and operates the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York, and provides federal assistance and training vessels to six state academies, including Cal State Maritime, which has faced an enrollment decline and financial strain that recently prompted a proposal to consolidate the campus with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
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