A federal court in the southern district of New York on Friday held Columbia University and one of its professors guilty of retaliation.
Professor Geert Bekaert, 53, was accused by Enrichetta Ravina, 42, a former assistant professor at university’s business school of retaliation when she denied his sexual advances.
“He talked about pornography, prostitution, and how prostitutes are important,” Ravina told the jury while recalling how Bekaert often used to push work aside to talk about his sex life.
The four-woman, four-man jury found that Bekaert used his position of power to thwart her research and publication efforts by sending disparaging emails about her to colleagues around the world in their field of financial economics after she complained to the university about his sexual advances.
The jury has awarded Ravina $750,000 in compensatory damages to be paid by the university and professor and $500,000 in punitive damages to be paid by the professor alone.
“We are gratified that the jury recognized the damage done to Professor Ravina’s career by Columbia University and Professor Geert Bekaert,” said David Sanford, Ravina’s attorney.
“Throughout Professor Ravina’s long ordeal, Columbia chose to ignore her concerns and turned a blind eye to Bekaert’s retaliatory behavior. We are hopeful today’s award will prompt Columbia to reassess its treatment of female faculty, staff, and students and make significant changes institution-wide that will prevent other women from being similarly damaged in the future,” Sanford added.
