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Dartmouth Reaches $14 Million Settlement in Sexual Abuse Lawsuit

Nine women had accused Dartmouth professors of sexual misconduct. The women and the college said on Tuesday that they had reached a settlement in the case.Credit...Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist for The New York Times

Dartmouth College and nine women who claimed they were raped, sexually assaulted or harassed by their professors said on Tuesday that they had reached a $14.4 million settlement, in a case that forced soul-searching in academia about the system of mentoring and promoting graduate students in the sciences.

The women accused three Dartmouth professors in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, whose research included studies of sexual desire and attractiveness, of coercing them into an alcohol- and sex-saturated party culture in the human behavior lab that they led. The professors, all men, used their power over their students’ academic careers and future employment to keep them from complaining, the women said.

A “21st century Animal House” atmosphere took hold as far back as 2002, while the college administration looked the other way, according to the lawsuit. The case prompted protests from students and alumni about how the college handled sexual misconduct complaints.

The lawsuit was filed against the university, not directly against the professors — Todd F. Heatherton, William M. Kelley and Paul J. Whalen — who retired or resigned after Dartmouth moved to revoke their tenure. The professors do not face any financial consequences from the settlement. But they could still be found liable through other venues, like criminal prosecution.

In a joint announcement on Tuesday, the women said they were satisfied with the settlement, which was much less than the $70 million in damages that they originally sought. The women and the university said that they were planning to work together to create a better climate on campus.

For its part, Dartmouth did not admit liability. But Philip J. Hanlon, Dartmouth’s president, praised the women for coming forward.

“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,” Mr. Hanlon said.

The full details of the settlement were not disclosed on Tuesday, and the parties asked the court to give them until Aug. 20 to do so. The suit was originally filed by seven women, later joined by two more, on behalf of a class of students who said they were affected by the professors’ behavior. It was not clear how many students would be included in the class, and lawyers said that was one of the details that would be clarified in the final settlement.

The women said they were “encouraged by our humble contribution to bringing restorative justice to a body of Dartmouth students beyond the named plaintiffs.”

The case mobilized Dartmouth alumni and women in the sciences, who were outraged by the allegations that women were forced to endure sexual harassment as the price of academic advancement. Dartmouth alumni organized to put pressure on the college under the hashtag #DartmouthDoBetter. An investigator at the National Institutes of Health, Lauren Atlas, asked for volunteers in the scientific community to serve as mentors to female graduate students.

The alumni group was critical of Dartmouth’s statement about the settlement Tuesday, calling it “self-serving” and “publicity driven.” The alumni, led by Diana Whitney, a 1995 graduate of the college, called on Dartmouth to dig deeper. “What was broken in the system that allowed this abuse to develop, go unchecked and worsen over time?” the group asked.

The alumni also called on the college to acknowledge its “misguided tactic” in trying to force the three anonymous “Jane Doe” plaintiffs in the case to reveal their identities. The college had argued in court papers that anonymous plaintiffs could not properly represent a class.

Dartmouth has adopted a number of new policies that will be included in the settlement, including a requirement that theses and dissertations be overseen by a committee rather than by a single adviser. “This will ensure that a graduate student will never again be subject to the potentially problematic power imbalance of a single adviser,” said Justin Anderson, a spokesman for the college.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 17 of the New York edition with the headline: Dartmouth Settles Lawsuit Over Abuse for $14 Million. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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