Sex Bias Suit Targets Caltech, Professor : Litigation: Student alleges unwanted advances by her faculty adviser. School concluded that his action was ‘inappropriate,’ but said no harassment took place.

A Caltech student has sued the university and her faculty adviser in U.S. District Court, alleging sex discrimination, negligent supervision and emotional distress over a two-year period.

The suit filed by Kellie Whittaker, 32, a doctoral student in biology, claims that her adviser, Prof. Eric Davidson, asked her repeatedly for sexual favors from 1989 to 1991. The suit says she complied initially because Davidson could influence her academic progress and future employment.

Last fall, Whittaker filed a sexual harassment charge with Caltech. After an internal investigation, the university concluded that Davidson’s behavior was “inappropriate and unethical in the context of a student/adviser situation,” but that no sexual harassment occurred. At the school’s request, Davidson apologized to the provost.

Caltech has not been served with legal papers and has no comment, said Bob O’Rourke, assistant vice president for public relations. Davidson is not teaching at Caltech this summer, according to the school’s biology department, and could not be reached for comment.

Whittaker, who is still enrolled at Caltech, declined to be interviewed. But her attorney, Gloria Allred, said the case has few legal precedents. “It’s a relatively new area of the law for women who have been students to sue professors for sexual harassment,” Allred said.

Susan Estrich, a USC law professor who specializes in gender issues, predicts that there will be more such suits, especially against universities with deep pockets.

“There’s increasing awareness of sexual harassment and as that happens we’ll see more and more lawsuits to determine what those boundaries are,” Estrich said.

Caltech, which has produced 21 Nobel Prize winners over its 101-year history, is an overwhelmingly male school. The graduate program is about 20% female, officials said. Only 4.7% of the tenured faculty are women and 25% of the undergraduates are women.

The Whittaker suit, filed July 31, comes at a time when some women faculty and students say that Caltech could do more to discourage sexual harassment and make women feel at ease on campus.

Regina Dugan, co-chairwoman of the Organization for Women at Caltech, suggests that Caltech add a women’s studies elective and hold seminars to teach students and faculty what constitutes sexual harassment.

The school recently approved construction of a Center for Women in Science and Engineering, but Dugan and others are upset that the name does not recognize staff or women in the humanities and social sciences.

Whittaker enrolled in Caltech’s graduate biology program in 1987 and was assigned to work in Davidson’s laboratory. In the spring of 1989, the suit says, Davidson told Whitaker she had been admitted because he agreed to accept her into his lab program.

According to the lawsuit, Davidson then began subjecting Whittaker to “repeated demands for sexual favors.” Whittaker complied for some time, but then rejected Davidson’s continued demands, the suit said.

About October, 1991, Whittaker complained to Caltech officials. According to the suit, two other Caltech women were also sexually harassed by Davidson. The suit also claims that the school took no disciplinary action against Davidson.

In a letter to Whittaker and Davidson dated Jan. 17, Caltech Vice President and Provost Paul C. Jennings, who headed the committee investigating her charges, said there was agreement that a consensual sexual relationship existed between the two.

Jennings concluded that “Kellie did not clearly and unequivocally communicate to Eric that his sexual attention was no longer welcome” and that she “behaved inappropriately in her efforts to combine personal and professional interactions with her adviser.”

The investigation found no evidence that Davidson “ever conditioned Kellie’s status as a graduate student on the continuation of their sexual relationship.” Davidson was chided for unethical and inappropriate behavior and the investigation concluded that the most “appropriate resolution” was for the professor to apologize to the provost. Davidson “responded satisfactorily,” Jennings’ letter said.