MSU Settles with Student for $175,000 over Sexual Harassment
Montana State University announced on Tuesday that the school has settled with a former student following a claim of sexual harassment by a former music professor.
Director of the Montana State University News Service, Michael Becker provided details of the settlement.
“According to the settlement agreement that we’ve reached, the university agreed to pay $175,000 to the plaintiff,” said Becker. “In that agreement the university admits no fault in the settlement.”
The Associated Press reports that an MSU investigation found that associate professor Shuichi Komiyama had a sexual relationship with the plaintiff, who claimed she felt compelled to submit to the professor’s advances in order to further her career in music. MSU previously paid the former student $75,000 to settle a claim of sexual harassment brought by the Montana Human Rights Bureau.
Becker said MSU will take the lessons learned from the settlements and move forward.
“The university takes situations like this very seriously,” he said. “Like any incident, this is one to learn from, and as we move forward and consider our policies and any changes that will come in the future, this will be something that we look at and learn from as time goes on.”
Court records indicate that the music professor had pleaded guilty in 1990 to two felony counts of having a sexual relationship with a California high school student.