An undergraduate student at Columbia University has sued the school and its former General Studies Dean of Students for sexual harassment.
The $50 million suit has been filed against the school’s board of trustees and Dean Tom Harford in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The plaintiff, identified only as Jane Doe, has alleged Harford of forcing her into an inappropriate romantic and sexual relationship earlier this year when she went to seek his assistance after suffering from a traumatic experience.
The student further accused Harford of threatening her to stop the scholarship, if she didn’t comply with his abuse and inappropriate sexual demands.
“Columbia pays lip service to the ideals of a safe campus, but it has a well-documented record of violating Title IX in preventing and responding to reports of sexual misconduct. Jane Doe’s story has become a familiar one at Columbia,” Sanford Heisler Sharp, a law firm representing the student, said. “Columbia University violated Title IX in failing to protect her from his sexual misconduct.”
The attorneys representing the student have requested the court to initiate the trial against the university and its dean.