Women sue Dartmouth, claim sexual misconduct
Ex-professors accused of groping, harassment
CONCORD, N.H. — Dartmouth College was sued Thursday for allegedly allowing three professors to create a culture in their department that encouraged drunken parties and subjected female students to harassment, groping and sexual assault.
Seven women filed the lawsuit in federal court in New Hampshire against the elite college’s trustees. It contends that professors William Kelley, Paul Whalen and Todd Heatherton harassed and touched women inappropriately, often while out partying at bars or at their homes, where one hosted hot tub parties.
Kelley and Whalen are each accused of assaulting a student after a night of drinking, attempting to seduce women under their supervision and punishing those who rebuffed their advances in the Department of Psychological and Brain Science.
“The seven plaintiffs, each an exemplary female scientist at the start of her career, came to Dartmouth to contribute to a crucial and burgeoning field of academy study,” according to the lawsuit. “Plaintiffs were instead sexually harassed and sexually assaulted by the Department’s tenured professors and expected to tolerate increasing levels of sexual predation.”
Dartmouth praised the women for coming forward but denied allegations that it ignored complaints that allegedly date back as far as 2002.
“I would like to reiterate that sexual misconduct and harassment have no place at Dartmouth,” Dartmouth President Philip Hanlon said in an email to the college community Thursday. “We applaud the courage displayed by members of our community within PBS who brought the misconduct allegations to Dartmouth’s attention last year. And we remain open to a fair resolution of the students’ claims through an alternative to the court process.”
In October 2017, Dartmouth launched an investigation into the three professors. It never released the findings and was preparing to fire all three. But Heatherton retired this summer after being told he would be fired and denied tenure. Whalen and Kelley resigned soon thereafter.
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office has launched its own investigation.
Whalen and Kelley could not be reached for comment, and it is unclear if they have attorneys. Heatherton apologized for acting inappropriately at conferences but said, through a lawyer, that he never socialized or had sexual relations with students.
Six of the plaintiffs were graduate students, and one was an undergrad.
Repeatedly, the lawsuit alleges, the men set about grooming incoming graduate students. They would comment on their physical appearances, give them extra attention and then bombard them with invitations to drink with them at local bars or while at conferences.
When the women would oblige, the suit says, the men would seek to get them drunk and take advantage of them.
Those who refused to take part in the parties or bar hopping were often denigrated or ignored, according to the suit.