10th Circuit rejects DU professor's gender bias claim based on workplace rumors

The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming employers) recently affirmed the dismissal of a professor's employment discrimination lawsuit against the University of Denver (DU).

Facts

DU's Title IX office received multiple complaints about a seemingly inappropriate relationship between real estate professor Ronald Throupe and a foreign graduate student. (Title IX is a federal civil rights law that protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal assistance.) After an investigation, the office issued a written warning to the professor and admonished him from any further contact with the student because of the appearance of impropriety and lack of professionalism.

Throupe denied any inappropriate contact and subsequently filed an employment discrimination claim under Title IX against DU and several faculty and staff members. He alleged false rumors about his having a sexual relationship with one of his female students (and other actions taken against him) discriminated against him on the basis of sex and subjected him to a hostile work environment.

The lower court found Throupe failed to establish a prima facie (or initial) sex discrimination case and granted DU's request to dismiss the lawsuit without a trial. Specifically, the court ruled (1) rumors about his having an "affair"with the student didn't constitute harassment directed at him "because of his sex"and (2) he couldn't predicate his hostile environment claim on the circulation of such rumors.