Brown Ignored Harassment

PROVIDENCE, R.I.-For the first time, documents placed on file at U.S. District Court this summer offer textual evidence that the university was informed by at least four different students that Visiting Associate Professor of Chemistry Kayode Adesogan had sexually harassed them prior to his eventual dismissal in March 1994.

The written statements are dated October 21, 1992, December 11, 1992, September 9, 1993 and January 19, 1994, and were filed or dictated by, respectively, Laura Schleussner, Marketa Wills, Tilly Gurman and Amy Sanford.

In addition, new and disturbing patterns in Adesogan's alleged harassment have emerged from written complaints lodged with the university in March 1994 by Julia Stunkel, Helen Davis, Stacey Gray, Gina Khraish, Emily Borod and Erin Kuniholm.

The documents also hint that the number of female students Adesogan allegedly assaulted from March 9 to March 15, 1994 reached as high as three, not one, as had been previously believed. No action was taken during that time period because the university had asked Stunkel to put her complaint in writing and then considered it over a weekend.

Adesogan's case became one of the most notorious in Brown's history in March 1994, when he was dismissed on charges of sexually assaulting Brown female students. Later coverage indicated that the university had been informally aware as early as October 1992 of Adesogan's behavior, but had declined to fire him until 1994-after at least nine more complaints were made-instead placing him on "probation" and later giving him a salary increase of $10,000 for the 1993-1994 school year.