Unmutual at UC Irvine

Remember the case of UC Irvine professor Alexander McPherson, the refusenik who lost his lab-supervisory duties because he refused to submit to California's mandatory-by-law sexual harassment training? Now it turns out that university officials are going the extra mile by notifying his funders that the protein crystallization specialist is officially noncompliant.

"The point is it's an inanity, and they're trying to kill my grant because I won't participate in that inane process," McPherson told The Scientist. "Does that make sense? Not to me."

The Scientist also unearthed this nifty letter [PDF] from a UCI provost detailing all the marvelous punishments that await all managers who refuse to be trained.

* Removal of supervisory responsibilities over TAs, RAs and Postdocs (already in place at the Irvine campus).
* Delaying implementation of merit increases or promotions, without changing the effective date (i.e., once training is received the merit increase or promotion would be retroactive).
* Reporting the names of non-compliant faculty to Chancellors, EVCs, Deans and Regents.
* Freezing budgets of departments with non-compliant faculty.
* Denying internet access.