From today's decision by Judge Renée Marie Bumb (D.N.J.) in Doe v. Rowan Univ.:
Plaintiff Jane Doe is a PhD student at Rowan University in the Department of Clinical Psychology. She alleges that between August 2019 and January 2021, … her professor and mentor, … Dr. Greeson[,] repeatedly asked her out on dates to lunch, dinner, and late-night drinks, and would forcibly hug Plaintiff without her consent while they were alone in his office with the door shut. Plaintiff alleges that when she told Dr. Greeson in July 2021 that she planned on leaving his lab due to his repeated advances, Dr. Greeson responded by telling Plaintiff that if she left his lab, he "would do everything in [his] power to get [her] dismissed" from the PhD program. {Dr. Greeson is subject to a no-contact order against Plaintiff.}
As part of the University's clinical psychology graduate program, students must pass certain program benchmarks, including a qualifying PhD examination …. To pass the Qualifying Exam and matriculate within the program, a PhD student must receive passing marks across seven different content areas. If a PhD student fails four or more content areas, the student is deemed to have failed the entire exam and must re-take the exam at the next available testing date. A student who fails the Qualifying Exam in part or entirely twice will be dismissed from the program. The exams are blindly graded.
On October 25, 2021, the Department notified Plaintiff that she failed her first attempt at the Qualifying Exam. Because she passed only four of the seven content areas, she would have to re-take the entirety of the Qualifying Exam. [According to the declaration that the court cited for this proposition, she actually failed four of the seven content areas. -EV] On August 16 and 18, 2022, Plaintiff re-took the Qualifying Exam. She failed, only passing six of the seven content areas. The only section she failed—Integrated Health—was a section that Dr. Greeson (and another professor) scored. {Plaintiff alleges that the second exam grader is "known to be a close colleague and collaborator with Defendant Greeson."} This issue was later addressed by the Department as discussed below.
