University officials decided on May 5 to continue dual investigations into visual-arts associate professor Ricardo Dominguez. However, all details are being withheld from the public.

The first investigation will determine whether Dominguez’s March 4 Virtual Sit-In violated computer-hacking laws. It flooded the UC Office of the President’s website with messages such as “Transparency is not found at the UCOP.”

Dominguez called the sit-in an artistic act of protest.

“Art also brings [a] certain level of the unknown,” he said. “Protest is usually about the known.”

The second investigation centers on a cell-phone application Dominguez and visual-arts lecturer Brett Staulbaum designed to help illegal immigrants find water while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The university donated $5,000 to the project in 2007. Now, administrators are concerned with the legality of using taxpayer dollars to aid illegal immigrants.

Assistant Vice Chancellor of Audit & Management Advisory Services Stephanie Burke is leading the investigations. She will report findings to Senior Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs Paul Drake, who will then determine whether subsequent action will be pursued.

Burke — along with Vice Chancellor of Resource Management and Planning Gary Matthews; Investigations and External Audit Liaison Manager Robert Mannie; and UCSD spokeswomen Judy Piercey and Christine Clark — all declined to comment. Matthews said there is no definitive timeline for the investigation.

If the administrators conclude that Dominguez’s actions were illegal, he could be stripped of tenure.

A UCSD press release on the investigation expressed that the university does not take political positions on its researchers’ work.

Dominguez said he remains confident that the investigation will fail to yield any incriminating results.

“My sense is that the investigation will tell that the projects I’m being investigated for are the same projects that I have earned tenure for, and that my work is based on, and that my work will continue to be based on,” Dominguez said. “There will be no change either in my own work or in the standards of that work.”

Additional reporting by Jerry To.

Readers can contact Ayelet Bitton at [email protected].