Help with Legal Expenses for Assault at KU

I need help retaining legal representation to get back into school.

My doctoral research advisor touched me without consent and violated a number of ethical and safety boundaries. He stalked me online and harassed me and made coercing statements. I reached out for help and I asked him to leave me alone. KU responded by dismissing and suspending me, claiming that me asking my advisor to leave me alone was unwanted contact to him on my part and that I have no right to ask him to leave my social media; in other words, KU is claiming professors can stalk their students and students have no right to get away.

KU claimed his sexual harassment was not distressing to me, when it caused me significant emotional distress and inhibited my ability to work. They claimed his pawing at me and making up lies and telling me to stop taking my medication was not interfering with my academic progress, after he had retaliated and gotten me suspended.

My retired attorney father told KU that this professor was stalking his daughter. In response the school did not investigate our claim but instead told my advisor what we had said. He began to lie, telling wild stories that lawyers defend themselves with guns, therefore he is in danger from me and my dad. My dad and I don't own guns and I hate guns and have never touched a gun. He also submitted complaints that I had eaten free pizza in the student lounge, which the school called "possession of a pizza" and used routine work communication against me even the school told me to continue my job.

My advisor slurred me, calling me crazy, and raved in a school hearing implying I owe him something because he never spent more time on anyone else. He raved that he had a problem with me because I desired recognition in physics (I have a master's in physics) and saying that I spoke in a funny voice, that calling my thesis on explanation "explaining explanation" on social media was a conduct violation (???), and that I was pitiful because of my illness. He lied about my academic progress and status in the program during the hearing (I was in excellent academic standing and my thesis proposal was being used as a sample prospectus for other students to read and he had previously said in writing I was eight weeks from finishing my PhD). He called me crazy and unhinged, defamed me to my colleagues, and attacked my character and my father's character.

KU moved to suspend me without an investigation. They dismissed my advisor's slurring me or telling me not to take my meds as not interfering with my education and "not discriminatory because he was whistle blowing", when I was whistle blowing about him, and they said it's okay he used slurs against me and not discriminatory because "crazy" and "unhinged" "aren't disorders" and insinuated I have no disorder when I provided a decade of medical history. They tried to shut me up, make me go away, and destroy my reputation in my department and with my friends, and their Title IX office conspired with a professor to violate my constitutional rights. The Title IX office told me that because I didn't return a book he gave me, that meant I consented to his harassment.

Because of the suspension, I lost my ability to apply for postdocs and tenure track jobs in expectation of graduation. The school ruined my reputation in my department, hurting my chances at letters of recommendation as my professor slandered and lied about me to the entire school. I lost a job as an adjunct at a community college because KU marked my transcript with a suspension for his lies. They destroyed my livelihood and attempted to ruin my entire life and all my dreams and all my hard work in my academic career.

KU's attacks on me are not just an attack on one individual; my situation flags a systemic problem within our educational institutions where victims are silenced or punished for speaking out. KU Has a track record of this, having kicked out a law student for truthfully reporting she was raped (https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article247180369.html), having kicked multiple women students off rowing teams for reporting they were raped by a football player (https://www2.ljworld.com/news/2016/mar/21/former-ku-rower-who-says-she-was-raped-jayhawker-t/), and having allowed their cheerleading students to be paraded naked and half drowned in washing machines, then punishing the cheerleaders for speaking out (https://nypost.com/2018/05/11/kansas-cheerleaders-punished-for-alleged-naked-hazing-incident/). KU systematically isolates, disenfranchises, demeans, and defames women victims, suspending them or making them finish school alone via telecommunications methods, while allowing rapists, sexual predators and stalkers to continue attending or teaching class.

KU suspended me without any Title IX investigation of my professor's lies against me, as required under federal law before ruling on charges. KU also did not complete a Title IX investigation of my very serious claims against my PhD advisor. In fact, the KU Title IX office claimed that because I did not return his numerous unwanted gifts, this was evidence I wanted his advances and I had somehow consented, despite my speaking out, and despite KU's own policies claiming that students can't meaningfully consent to professors in authority anyway.

Over 1 in 4 (26%) of women at KU report they were sexually assaulted during their time at KU, according to a 2019 study by the Association of American Universities. Yet KU is working to let stalkers, harassers, and rapists walk and continue their work unphased, and to kick women out for reporting their assailants.

I need help with legal expenses and related costs. I will be retaining an attorney to assist me. I will hold KU accountable for their actions against me and victims like myself, who have been unjustly suspended, dismissed, or expelled for seeking help against sexual harassment and assault. I am demanding that KU change its unspoken and spoken policies regarding victims like me, and demand that KU comply with Title IX and federal law. I am demanding that KU investigate my case properly, clear my good name and reinstate me to be able to defend my dissertation and graduate with my PhD.

Please help any way you can. Please bookmark this and share my GoFundMe, or sign or share my petition here: https://chng.it/BXfZ6NFmY+m

If you have any questions about my situation or what happened to me, or what KU has done, please contact me here or on my Facebook profile: http://www.facebook.com/JennyLN.

Thanks everyone for fighting this with me. You're all very appreciated and cared about. I believe in justice, and I believe we will win.

THANK YOU !!!

Jenny Nielsen