A Kutztown University student who claimed she was the subject of retaliation for spurning her professor's unwanted sexual advances has settled a sexual harassment lawsuit for $70,000.
Rhonda Miller of Bethlehem transferred to Kutztown and began to study Pennsylvania German family history in June 2011.
Professor Robert Reynolds, the director of the university's Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center, was assigned as Miller's academic adviser, according to the suit filed last year in federal court in Allentown.
In December, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Stengel rejected Reynolds' request to dismiss the suit, finding that Reynolds and Kutztown would have to present evidence to refute Miller's claims.
The settlement, signed in March and obtained through a request under Pennsylvania's Right to Know Law, is not an admission of fault or liability by Kutztown or Reynolds. Reynolds, who has worked at Kutztown for 10 years, remains a professor at Kutztown.
Kutztown spokesman Matthew Santos said the university does not discuss personnel matters.
"Given the potential costs involved in lengthy litigation, regardless of the eventual outcome, settling the case now was in the best interest of the university," he said.
Miller's attorney did not return a call Friday.
As part of her course of study, Miller was required to work closely with Reynolds and the heritage center. Reynolds was Miller's instructor for many of her courses, the suit said.
About a month after Miller and Reynolds began working together, Reynolds allegedly began making sexually offensive remarks and advances toward Miller, which she rejected. Nonetheless, Reynold's sexual comments toward Miller continued, sometimes in the presence of male colleagues, the suit said.
During a meeting at Reynolds' home, the professor allegedly groped and kissed Miller against her will, according to the suit. Reynolds allegedly threatened to commit suicide if she reported the incident and warned that he would sabotage her academic career if she refused to give into his advances, the suit claims.
In January 2012, Miller asked to be assigned to a different academic adviser because of Reynolds' continued harassment and the emotional distress it was causing her, court papers say. Despite complaints by Miller and her husband, Kutztown University officials failed to investigate, according to the suit.
After her formal complaint, Reynolds and other university officials "commenced a campaign of retaliation," by excluding her from lectures, keeping her from meeting with visiting scholars, revoking her privileges at the heritage center library, and refusing to cooperate with Miller on research projects, according to court documents.
Miller was forced to withdraw from her academic program as a result of the alleged retaliation, court papers say.
Her lawsuit alleged violations of the federal law against sexual discrimination in education, assault and battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.