Last week, a Northwestern University student rocked the campus by filing a federal lawsuit against the university for failing to take adequate action on her two-year-old complaint of sexual harassment against an NU professor.
Here’s the version of events according to the lawsuit, filed February 10 by the student’s attorney, Kevin O’Connor:
The lawsuit states that her memory was fading “in and out” and that she recalls being in an elevator and going back to his apartment, with him groping her while she begged him to stop; then she recalls waking up at 4 AM. “Ludlow was in bed with her, and his arms were around her. She panicked and blacked out.”
Meanwhile, according to the lawsuit, the student became so anxious about running into Ludlow on campus that she was unable to attend some classes. The situation also made her mother sick, the lawsuit claims; in March 2013 the student had to leave school because her mother had developed health problems “caused by extreme emotional distress she had experienced due to her daughter’s incident with Ludlow” and its “subsequent mishandling” by Northwestern. When the student returned to school, she “could not handle the full-time course load.”
Northwestern spokesman Storer “Bob” Rowley declined to comment on pending litigation but said by e-mail that “the University has policies and procedures in place to protect our students and to address any such reported concerns.” In fact, Northwestern instituted a new policy prohibiting consensual romantic and/or sexual relations between faculty and undergraduates just last month.
