Lawsuit filed by University of Michigan professor accusing dean of homophobia dismissed

ANN ARBOR, MI – A controversial University of Michigan professor’s lawsuit accusing his former boss of homophobic discrimination has been dismissed in federal court.

Robert Stephenson, a professor at the School of Nursing and former director of its Center for Sexuality and Health Inequalities, filed the lawsuit in August 2023 in federal court in Detroit, accusing the university, its board of directors and three defendants of discrimination, retaliation and violating his constitutional rights.

According to court documents, Stephenson, 48, also claimed that the two people who filed Title IX sexual harassment claims against him were actually the ones who sexually harassed him.

Stephenson and the university moved to dismiss the lawsuit, which U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith ordered on June 12.

It is unclear why the parties agreed to a dismissal. There was no agreement and Stephenson has been on leave since May 2023, said university spokeswoman Colleen Mastony, who had no further comment.

Stephenson’s attorney, David Nacht, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The university, its provost Laurie McCauley, dean of the School of Nursing Patricia Hurn, and Robert Ploutz-Snyder, associate dean for research and scholarship at the School of Nursing, were named as defendants.

Stephenson accused the university and regents of two counts of sexual discrimination and retaliation in violation of the state’s Eliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. The other four counts in Stephenson’s lawsuit accused the defendants of sexual discrimination and retaliation under Title IX, as well as violating his constitutional rights to due process and equal treatment, according to the records.

The university’s lawyers denied the allegations in a response dated Nov. 16 and later that month asked for a partial dismissal of the lawsuit on the grounds that the university and its administration, as governmental institutions, had constitutional immunity, the documents show.

Read more: The regents of the University of Michigan want to withdraw from the lawsuit of a professor in which he accuses an official of homophobia

Stephenson, who is gay, accused Hurn of homophobia and said he took advantage of the Title IX charges against him to “exploit these false allegations” and “use them as a weapon against him,” according to his lawsuit filed in August.

In a March 2022 Title IX complaint, Stephenson was named by a research assistant for violating the university’s sexual misconduct policy, his filing said. Later that month, an employee at the center also joined the complaint.

The research assistant accused Stephenson of making sexual advances and sending him sexual messages, pictures and videos through the dating app Grindr, court documents show. The employee also accused Stephenson of sending him sexual messages over the phone.

The allegations are “full of misinterpretations and outright lies,” Stephenson’s court documents say. In them, he accused the research assistant of touching him and asking him to watch pornography together.

Read more: University of Michigan professor facing sexual harassment complaints accuses dean of homophobia

In December 2022, the hearing officer overseeing the complaints ruled that Stephenson did not violate university policy, according to Stephenson’s filing. The university disputed that the hearing officer found that Stephenson did not violate university policy, according to its response.

The hearing officer’s decision, which the student and staff member appealed, was overturned later that month because a Title IX coordinator requested further review of the evidence, according to Stephenson’s filing.

Before those decisions were announced, Hurn allegedly told Stephenson that he had lost the hearing and had no choice but to resign and “go back where he came from,” his lawsuit states.

Administrative leave is not considered a punitive or disciplinary action, UM officials previously said. Hurn informed nursing school faculty and staff of Stephenson’s administrative leave in a May 11 email obtained by MLive/The Ann Arbor News.

“Dr. Stephenson is relieved of all professional responsibilities at UMSN and is prohibited from engaging in any activities related to our teaching, research, clinical practice, and ministry,” Hurn wrote.

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