Dartmouth Pays $14 Million to Settle Sexual Misconduct Lawsuit Involving former Psych Professors Bill Kelley, Paul Whalen and Todd Heatherton

August 6, 2019

Dartmouth College has settled with nine current and former female students and researchers who filed a class-action lawsuit that alleged that college administrators turned a blind eye to sexual misconduct by three professors in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.

The settlement, which the college announced in a community-wide email on Tuesday, includes $14 million for the class of plaintiffs, which is defined as all students who meet certain criteria and who certify that they endured a hostile environment created by the conduct of the three former professors.

“We are satisfied to have reached an agreement with Dartmouth College, and are encouraged by our humble contribution to bringing restorative justice to a body of Dartmouth students beyond the named plaintiffs,” Plaintiffs Kristina Rapuano, Vassiki Chauhan, Sasha Brietzke, Annemarie Brown, Andrea Courtney, Marissa Evans, Jane Doe, Jane Doe 2, and Jane Doe 3 said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

“We remain committed to bringing survivor perspectives and community voices to the forefront of the conversation surrounding campus climate. 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.”

The agreement, which is subject to the approval of the federal court in Concord, also includes specific Dartmouth-funded initiatives under the effort known as the Campus Climate and Culture Initiative, which aim to identify and rectify current problems and prevent future issues.

In the college’s announcement, Dartmouth President Phil Hanlon thanked the women who “courageously came forward alongside other students to bring to my administration’s attention a toxic environment created by three former tenured professors, who will never set foot on this campus again … 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.”

The college and the plaintiffs entered mediation in late July. Seven plaintiffs initially filed the lawsuit last November. Two more plaintiffs joined the suit this spring.

Two of the professors, Paul Whalen and Bill Kelley, resigned last summer, and the third, Todd Heatherton, retired, after internal Dartmouth reviews recommended that all three be terminated. The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office has said it is undertaking a criminal investigation into the allegations of sexual misconduct by the professors.

Source: Nora Doyle-Burr, “Dartmouth College settles sexual misconduct lawsuit, includes $14 million for plaintiffs,” Valley News, Aug. 6 2019, URL: https://vtdigger.org/2019/08/06/dartmouth-college-settles-sexual-misconduct-lawsuit-includes-14-million-for-plaintiffs/