University Provost James Pomerantz, however, ultimately ruled with the music department, Kingsbury said. Rothman made his judgment after Associate Dean of the Faculty Newell Stultz conducted an investigation into a complaint filed by a music graduate student. Kingsbury provided Rothman's letter, written while Kingsbury was still on medical leave, to The Herald. The professor withheld the name of his accuser, who he said is an ethnomusicologist now working at a West Coast university. I consider it my responsibility to reprimand you strongly for your actions, and to warn you that if you rejoin the Brown University Faculty as an active faculty member and commit another act of sexual harassment against a Brown student or employee, you will be subject to sanctions which could include dismissal.
Faculty members have a great deal of power to influence the academic progress of students.
Students must be free of the intrusion of romantic pursuit by a faculty member. Kingsbury, however, insisted that his behavior was harmless, and said he was shocked when the graduate student filed a complaint. Colloquially, I had a crush on her and we flirted a lot. The student filed a complaint in September 1991, but Kingsbury said he was not informed of her action until March 1993. I didn't want his reputation to go up in smoke.