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‘Gross Overreaction’ By CU Against Prof Accused of ‘Retaliating’ Against Victim

The University of Colorado-Boulder is railroading a philosophy professor accused of “retaliating” against an alleged sexual-assault victim, the professor’s students told the Boulder Daily Camera.

David Barnett is alleged to have started his own investigation after a female student claimed she was assaulted by a male philosophy doctoral student and the university concluded its findings, as The College Fix reported.

Barnett’s students are outraged that the school has moved to fire the tenured professor, whose attorney claims he was only investigating how the school’s Office of Discrimination and Harassment conducted its investigation, not the alleged assault itself:

Kyra Rehman, a former undergraduate student in CU’s philosophy department, said she was at the party where the alleged sexual assault occurred. …

Rehman, who said she was friends with both the victim and the alleged assailant, saw a copy of the Office of Discrimination and Harassment’s findings and noticed inconsistencies in its depiction of her testimony.

When she talked with Barnett, they only discussed the Office of Discrimination and Harassment findings and her testimony.

“At no point did Barnett make any judgments on anyone involved in the case,” Rehman, 24, said in an interview with the Camera. …

Rebecca Chan, a current doctoral student within the department, also stepped forward to defend Barnett, who she said was her dissertation adviser. …

She added that she feels safe coming to him for help with professional and personal problems, and believes that he “saved” at least one suicidal student.

Chan said that Barnett “never said a word” against either the victim or the alleged assailant in the sexual assault case. She said the university’s decision to fire Barnett is a “gross overreaction.”

The school told faculty to “preserve any records relating to the case because of current or future litigation,” the Camera said.

Read the full story here.

h/t Campus Reform

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Associate Editor
Greg Piper served as associate editor of The College Fix from 2014 to 2021.