You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
A George Mason University professor last week lost his court argument that the institution disciplined him for sexual harassment based on anti-male bias.
“The university officials’ statements on which [Todd] Kashdan relies do not plausibly show anti-male bias or demonstrate that anti-male bias was a but-for motivating factor in GMU’s disciplinary actions against him,” wrote Judge Allison Jones Rushing on behalf of the unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
She wrote,
Kashdan has been a psychology professor at GMU for over 15 years and primarily studies sex, human sexuality and cultural norms. In December 2018, four current and former female graduate students accused Kashdan of sexually harassing them. In essence, the complainants alleged that during two graduate courses and in interpersonal interactions in his laboratory, at professional conferences and at student events hosted in his home, Kashdan told them explicit stories about his personal sexual experiences, as well as made explicit remarks and asked intimate questions about their sex lives. One complainant also recounted that Kashdan went to a strip club with her and other graduate students, and another complainant alleged Kashdan hugged her in a manner she believed was inappropriate.
George Mason’s punishment of Kashdan included a ban on “teaching graduate-level courses, mentoring new graduate students or hiring new graduate students as research assistants, all for a period of roughly two years,” the judge wrote. Kashdan remains a tenured professor.
“I am disheartened by the Fourth Circuit’s decision,” he said. “I filed the lawsuit in response to a lack of due process and false allegations of harassment, to attempt to fix a dysfunctional Title IX process in academia and to protect others facing similar injustices. In my case, the harassment charge focused on group conversations in graduate-level classes and meetings.”
The Washington Post reported Thursday on Kashdan losing his appeal.
