Dartmouth College has reached an agreement with nine current and former students who sued the Ivy League school for allegedly ignoring sexual misconduct.
In November, the women filed a lawsuit against Dartmouth for allegedly tolerating the predatory behavior of three professors. The federal class action lawsuit accused Dartmouth administrators of ignoring sexual misconduct complaints for more than a decade.
The women say the former psychology professors, Todd Heatherton, Paul Whalen and Bill Kelley, groped and harassed them. One says she was raped.
All of them accused administrators of turning a blind eye to what they called the department's "Animal House" culture in the lawsuit.
Sasha Brietzke, one of nine women who sued Dartmouth, at the time said the college had done little to change the psychology department.
"I came in to the department in 2016 and it was, as the lawsuit describes, a complete predators' club,” she said.
The $14 million settlement also includes plans to improve the campus climate and is subject to court approval.
"We remain committed to bringing survivor perspectives and community voices to the forefront of the conversation surrounding campus climate," the plaintiffs said in a joint statement. "Together with Dartmouth, we plan to continue addressing the systemic roots of power-based personal violence and gender-based discrimination across all levels of severity so that our experiences — and those of the class we represent — are never repeated.”
In a statement, Dartmouth President Philip Hanlon expressed gratitude that the women “courageously came forward alongside other students to bring to my administration’s attention a toxic environment."
"Through this process, we have learned lessons that we believe will enable us to root out this behavior immediately if it ever threatens our campus community again," he said.
