Fordham U. is sued both by ex-prof and a student who accused him of masturbation

A Fordham social work professor fired over a claim he masturbated during a Zoom lecture and the student who captured the act on her cell phone are suing the university, claiming officials violated both their civil rights in the response to the incident.

The student, Andrea Morin, ended up failing the class, retaliation, she says, for lodging the complaint. She lost her scholarship and was dropped from the program without any special consideration from the college, according to the suit filed in White Plains Federal Court.

The professor, Howard Robinson, 69, has denied any self-gratification during the class, claiming he’s incapable because he suffers from erectile dysfunction. He said that what he was actually doing was frantically trying to send an email while having to urgently urinate and the movement on the video was just a function of his discomfort.

“No, I was not masturbating,” he said. “The thought of masturbating was the furthest thing from my mind. I was totally focused on teaching.”

The episode highlights the pressure universities are under from both sides after a series of high-profile sexual abuse claims at academic institutions like Columbia University, Penn State and Ohio State University.

“There’s a pendulum that’s been swinging back and forth and there’s an argument over who the process should favor more the victim or the accused,” said lawyer Andrew Cell, who is not involved in the suits.

It was only the second class in the course on Sept. 10, 2020, when Morin was confronted with her professor in the throes of what she believed was masturbation.

Morin, who had her camera off because she was feeling ill, had just returned from the bathroom, and all the other students had moved to a virtual breakout room.

That’s when she claims she saw Robinson, red-faced and panting, seeming to be rocking back and forth and, out of view, moving his arms rapidly.

At one point she heard him say, “F—k, yeah,” according to the complaint.

The video, which was viewed by the Daily News with the understanding that it would not be published, shows Robinson from the chest to the top of his head. It’s unclear what he says if anything, but he does appear to be making rapid movements for about a minute and a half. He then gets up off the chair and moves off-screen.

When he returns, he seems to search the screen with his eyes and then says, “Andrea, are you there?”

Shaken by the incident, Morin told her brother and her boyfriend, who initially laughed it off. But when they saw the video they both agreed with her conclusion.

Robinson, who has been a licensed clinical social worker for 38 years and has worked with trauma victims in Rwanda, Taiwan and Israel, said that Morin misunderstood the whole episode.

He was trying to attach a PowerPoint presentation to an email to the entire class to get it up to speed on the lesson, he said.

What Morin saw as masturbation, he says, was a technologically challenged middle-aged man with bladder control problems.

“It might be hard for other people to get it,” Robinson said. “For a 69-year-old with a medical issue, I have to deal with it.”

Morin filed a complaint with the school the next day, and Robinson was suspended without pay while the investigation unfolded.

Robinson (inset) was fired Jan. 26 by a letter sent by the university provost that told him “more likely than not you engaged in conduct in violation of the Fordham Sexual and Related Misconduct Policy.”

“This event has caused enormous problems for me in my life. I have fallen behind in school and emotionally suffer from this incident,” Morin told university officials, according to her lawsuit.

Despite that fact, Fordham made no accommodations for her and when she missed several quizzes and work, the replacement professor gave her a failing grade.

One dean told her that he had reservations about her fitness to become a social worker because she continued to blame others for her bad performance and refused to take responsibility for herself, according to the complaint.

She wants a written apology from all parties, to be reinstated in the program with her scholarship and $1 million in damages. She declined to be interviewed.

Fordham concluded that Robinson did not violate Title IX, a federal law requiring equal treatment of the sexes in academia, because it was a one-time incident.

Robinson says that he has never had a complaint before.

“My record has been sterling,” he said. “There has never been a student or faculty member make any complaint whatsoever.”

Because Fordham decided Title IX was not violated, Robinson says, he was not offered the proper venue to defend himself. If Fordham brought the complaint under Title IX, he would be allowed to cross-examine the complainant and witnesses.

Robinson’s lawsuit in Bronx Supreme Court seeks to force Fordham to retry the case.

“This process has been unfair and prejudicial and not in good faith,” he said. “In a zeal to correct for a history of indifference to complaints of assault, there has been an overcorrection.”

Fordham declined to comment on either lawsuit, but provost Jonathan Crystal, in his written response to the professor’s appeal to the university’s decision to fire him, seemed unmoved by his arguments.

“Mr. Robinson seems to be having a difficult time accepting the consequences of his actions,” he wrote. “The panel should disregard this attempt to appear sympathetic. His own carelessness and disregard for Fordham’s policy led him to where he is today.”