Three graduate students who sued Harvard University in 2022 over its response to sexual harassment allegations against a prominent professor reached a settlement with the university this week, court record show.
The students — Margaret Czerwienski, Lilia Kilburn and Amulya Mandava — filed a federal lawsuit against Harvard in February 2022, claiming that the professor, John Comaroff, used his power to “exploit aspiring scholars,” and that the university failed to “protect students from sexual abuse.”
Mr. Comaroff, 79, “kissed and groped students without their consent,” and when the students complained, he “threatened to sabotage” their careers, the lawsuit states. The professor denied the allegations.
Court records show that the case moved to mediation late last year. The terms of the settlement this week has not been publicly disclosed.
A court filing on Wednesday showed that the students and the university agreed to dismiss the case without costs, bringing an end to a matter that spurred student protests and prompted the university to investigate the claims against Mr. Comaroff.
“We’re proud of our clients’ courage in coming forward, speaking up about their experiences and shedding light on important issues,” Sanford Heisler Sharp, the law firm representing the three students, said in a statement on Thursday. “We are glad that our clients will now be able to move on with their lives and careers.”
Harvard and lawyers representing the university in the case did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
Lawyers who represent Mr. Comaroff but were not involved in defending him in the lawsuit declined to comment on the case.
The Harvard Crimson, the university’s student newspaper, reported on the settlement this week and on the sexual harassment allegations against Mr. Comaroff in 2020.
Mr. Comaroff, who joined Harvard in 2012, was a prominent professor of African American studies and anthropology before he retired in June. In a statement announcing his retirement, Mr. Comaroff described the lawsuit against him as “meritless.”
“I was falsely accused of harassment by one Harvard student, and of threatening retaliation against two others,” he said. “After a 14-month investigation, I was found not responsible for any of those accusations, save for one instance of verbal impropriety.”
According to the lawsuit, Mr. Comaroff sexually harassed Ms. Kilburn repeatedly, including on one occasion in 2017, when Mr. Comaroff kissed Ms. Kilburn without her permission while she was a prospective student. The lawsuit also claims that Mr. Comaroff threatened to sabotage the careers of Ms. Czerwienski and Ms. Mandava after he learned that they had told university faculty members about reports that Mr. Comaroff had sexually harassed another student besides Ms. Kilburn.
Despite the students’ complaints about Mr. Comaroff to the university, Harvard did not begin an investigation until The Crimson published reports of his misconduct, the lawsuit states.
Mr. Comaroff was placed on administrative leave after the reports of sexual harassment surfaced.
The lawsuit, Mr. Comaroff said in his statement, did not influence his decision to retire, but he said that allegations and suit were had been “extremely hurtful given my decades of dedication to my teaching and my students.”
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