Dartmouth College was sued on Thursday by a group of female students who claim the university allegedly allowed at least three professors to host drunken parties where the women were sexually harassed, assaulted and groped.
The seven women named professors William Kelley, Paul Whalen and Todd Heatherton in the suit filed against the Ivy League college’s trustees, contending that they “harassed and touched women inappropriately, often while out partying at bars or at their homes where one hosted hot tub parties,” the Associated Press reported.
“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,” the suit reads, according to the AP. “Plaintiffs were instead sexually harassed and sexually assaulted by the Department’s tenured professors and expected to tolerate increasing levels of sexual predation.”
In response, Dartmouth praised the women for coming forward with their stories but denies allegations that it ignored their attempted complaints that date back to 2002. The school launched an investigation into the three professors last year and never released its findings but said it was planning on firing each of them.
But the professors got ahead of the college — Heatherton retired this summer after being told he would be fired and denied tenure while Whalen and Kelley resigned soon after.
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