Case alleges Title IX violations and harassment

lawsuit from page 1

In 2021, Barzman accepted a University arrangement to receive one year’s salary and complete supervision of her remaining doctoral students in exchange for severance of her relationship with BU. She characterized the agreement as compulsory.

“They forced me to sign an agreement that made it look like I was willingly retiring,” Barzman said. “[They] kept calling it an ‘early retirement agreement.’”

In 2019, along with all faculty, staff, graduate assistants (GAs) and teaching assistants (TAs), Barzman had to complete a Title IX training module, in compliance with “state law and University policy.” According to the module, “supervisors and managers are held to a higher standard,” and are required to report any cases of harassment or violence communicated to them, observed or that they should have “reasonably known about.”

After completing the module, Barzman contacted Klin, the then-acting dean of Harpur College. She described how Klin was initially sympathetic, promising to speak to higher administration about transferring her away from the abuse within the art history department, but then ultimately denied her request after speaking to the provost, Nieman.

“The University abrogated its responsibilities to me for administration.

Barzman recalled confiding in many faculty members above her in rank — including chairs of other academic departments and administrators that answer only to the University president. Ultimately, she said that “nobody fulfilled their obligations under Title IX,” which mandates that administrators take “immediate steps” once made aware of an incident, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network — an anti-sexual violence nonprofit.

Barzman, now a scholar in residence at the Newberry Library in Chicago and an adjunct lecturer at DePaul University, described the impact on her professional life.

“I was a fully tenured, full professor with doctoral students and an international reputation as a scholar,” Barzman said. “Now I’m an adjunct instructor. [I’m] grateful to have this job because it’s something.” argued impeded receiving justice and protection from administrators. Kara Chadwell, the president of Domestic and Oppressive Violence Education (DOVE) — an organization dedicated to educating students and the larger community about forms of domestic abuse — and a senior double-majoring in human development and philosophy, politics and law, explained the impact of not communicating about sensitive issues on victims of domestic violence.

In their motion to dismiss Barzman’s lawsuit, the defendants listed five points — the first argued that employees were not entitled to sue under Title IX, the second mentioned the statute of limitations, the third said that an “actionable sex-based Title IX harassment claim” was not stated, the fourth concerned claims against individual defendants and the fifth contended that the court should not exercise jurisdiction over NYSHRL claims. Every motion was denied by the court.

“I think for the most part, our society has a culture of isolation, especially when it comes to a victim,” Chadwell said. “Starting from a young age, when you’re not having open and honest conversations about difficult topics like this, [people] become accustomed to not talking about things and then it’s uncomfortable, and then they don’t want to, and then when someone comes to them with an issue, they don’t know what to do.”

Victoria Barics, the treasurer of DOVE and a senior double-majoring in psychology and philosophy, politics and law, emphasized the importance of listening to survivors with understanding.

“I think that it’s very important that when somebody opens up about something like that, they get to have someone listen with a very empathetic ear,” Barics said. “As far as [Barzman’s] experience, and just in general, just having all these people [react] in not the most supportive way can have