ANN ARBOR, MI — A lawsuit filed Feb. 28 alleges that several people, including Tamiko Strickman, director of the University of Michigan’s Office of Institutional Equity, mishandled a sexual misconduct case at the University of Nebraska.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Nebraska, states Strickman served as an investigator and deputy Title IX coordinator at Nebraska during the time a doctoral student — referred to as Jane Doe in the suit — reported sexual harassment by one of her professors.
Less than seven months after being enrolled in Nebraska’s mechanical and materials engineering degree program in 2014, Doe’s adviser, a professor in the engineering program known as John Roe in the suit, kissed her on the lips while they were in his office, the lawsuit states. She was 26 years old at the time while the professor was over 60 years old, according to the suit.
The sexual harassment continued into 2015 when Roe would try to hug the student, told her he loved her and kicked her legs between 20 and 30 times, according to the lawsuit. Roe would also harass Doe through unsolicited texts and emails, the lawsuit states.
In Roe’s “retaliatory campaign against plaintiff,” he also demoted the student from first to second author on a paper she wrote to fulfill her doctorate requirements, according to the lawsuit. He said Doe “simply seems not interested in participating” and was not “seriously working” on the project, the suit states.
In 2016, Doe met with Strickman and Susan Foster, director of Nebraska’s Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance, where she provided Strickman and Foster with text messages and emails showing the harassment, the lawsuit states. Soon after, Strickman and Foster stopped answering Doe’s calls and emails and made Doe “feel like she was the harasser rather than the victim,” according to the lawsuit.
Strickman and Foster instructed Doe not to tell anyone about her complaint and tried to convince her to drop the case, the lawsuit states. Later that year, a letter signed by Strickman said that Roe had violated Nebraska’s sexual harassment policy but wrongly characterized parts of Roe’s harassment and did not consider the evidence provided during the investigation, the lawsuit states.
There was a no-contact directive between the student and professor, but his harassment continued, which led Doe to file a second complaint, according to the suit. No investigation was opened and the student started her doctorate program at a different school in 2017, the lawsuit states.
Even after going to another school, the professor copied Doe on an email to other Nebraska students, and Doe emailed Strickman to notify her that he had violated the no-contact directive, the lawsuit states. Strickman did not respond to the first email or a follow-up confirming she had received the first email, according to the lawsuit.
Feeling she had been discriminated against by Nebraska, Doe asked for an apology, and Strickman sent her a two-sentence email stating the matter had been resolved, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit alleges a violation of Title IX, discrimination on the basis of sex and negligence, and requests damages for emotional distress and expenses.
The lawsuit states that Strickman was terminated from her position at Nebraska in December 2019. UM announced on Dec. 16, 2019, that Strickman had been appointed to serve as associate vice president for institutional equity of OIE, and her appointment was made effective Jan. 6, 2020.
Michael Zeleny, chief of staff and associate to the chancellor at Nebraska, said Strickman was not terminated from Nebraska, but rather left for her position at UM. UM spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said the university was not aware of any incident when Strickman was hired.
Through Fitzgerald, Strickman said she was unable to comment due to pending litigation at Nebraska.
Since Strickman’s hiring, UM has been at the center of several high-profile sexual misconduct cases, including former provost Martin Philbert, late UM athletic doctor Robert Anderson, former UM professor Stephen Shipps and engineering professors Jason Mars and Peter Chen.
UM hired Guidepost Solutions to implement recommendations from a report detailing years of misconduct by Philbert. Lawyers representing hundreds of survivors of Anderson are currently in mediation. In January, Chen was arraigned on one felony county of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a minor younger than 13 and Mars resigned from his position as CEO of Clinc, an Ann Arbor-based AI startup, after allegations of inappropriate behavior.
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