Recent California legislation (AB 1905) requires that any UC administrator or supervisor who provides an official letter of recommendation must first determine if the subject of the letter (i.e., the employee being recommended) is a respondent in a sexual harassment complaint and either 1) there is a sustained finding, 2) the employee resigned before a final determination, or 3) the employee settled the complaint with the University. If any of these conditions are met, then the administrator or supervisor is prohibited from providing the official letter of recommendation.
Official letters of recommendation for employment are defined as letters endorsed by the University and that represent the views of the University as an employer.
How do I comply with this policy?
If you are an administrator or supervisor (including principal investigators, instructors of record, etc.) and you intend to write an official letter of recommendation for a current or former employee, then you must reach out to UC Merced’s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination (ophd@ucmerced.edu) to confirm that you may proceed with this letter of recommendation.
Please note that the typical letter of recommendation written by an academic appointee may be considered a personal, not official, letter. If you are writing a personal letter of recommendation, then you may simply proceed with your letter. You will not need to contact the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination. You may still use UC Merced letterhead and your UC Merced email address, but if you comment on the subject’s performance as an employee you will need to include the following statement in your letter:
The following recommendation represents my personal perspective and does not represent the viewpoints of UC Merced or the University of California system.
Additional information
For additional information, please see the UC’s Interim Letter of Recommendation Guidance for Academic Appointeesand AB 1905.
