Two Columbia University graduate students claim a pair of lecherous former instructors ruined their career prospects by retaliating against the women for reporting their sexual advances.
In their $16 million Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit, filed today, the women also fault the Ivy League school and its deans for failing to address their complaints.
The suit names former Human Rights Department head J. Paul Martin, who now teaches at Barnard, and Law School lecturer Francis M. Ssekandi.
Scholarship student Laura Williams, 31, was in Martin’s campus office in 2005 when he allegedly cornered her against a wall, the suit claims.
“If you wanted a good grade, you’d need to have sex with me,” Martin allegedly told Williams.
Martin then allegedly asked Williams, who is black, “if she planned to have children out of wedlock,” the documents allege, adding that “he thought that black women typically have children out of wedlock.”
Fellow master’s student Susan Farley, 41, was doing research in East Timor in 2002 where Ssekandi allegedly harassed her, according to the suit.
“Ssekandi would hold Farley’s leg beneath the table and insist that she call him by his first name, which she refused to do,” court papers claim.
Both women told The Post they’ve struggled to find work since the incidents because the university has allegedly withheld transcripts and marred their credit ratings.
Neither the professors nor Columbia University returned calls or emails for comment.
Columbia grads file $16M sex suit
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Columbia grads file $16M sex suit
