Professor Files Suit Over Charges of Harassment : Education: A student complained that a Talmudic story used in class was inappropriate. The instructor is seeking redress from a disciplinary panel and his seminary.

Theology professor Graydon Snyder told the same ancient vignette to students for 34 years to illustrate a difference between Judaism and Christianity: A roofer falls on a woman and they accidentally have sex.

He used the story, that is, until one student complained. She was offended, not enlightened.

Snyder was disciplined after the complaint was filed in February, 1992, and decided to sue the Chicago Theological Seminary in a debate over academic freedom and sexual harassment.

The tenured professor, who has taught at the United Church of Christ seminary for more than eight years, said he used the story from the Talmud as an example of differences in the way people are judged in the eyes of God.

“The New Testament says if you think about doing the act, you’ve done it,” Snyder said last week. “The Talmud says if you do the act, but didn’t think about it, you didn’t do it.”

The student complained that Snyder’s use of the story from Talmud, the collection of Jewish law and commentary, was inappropriate. Snyder said she called him after the introductory class on the Bible to say she was going to file a complaint because she was offended by the sexual content of the tale.

“She said in the complaint that men are always saying that they don’t intend to do any harm and in fact they do,” Snyder said.

Snyder, 63, would not identify the woman, nor is she named in his lawsuit, filed last month.

He wrote an apology to the woman but admitted no wrongdoing after he attended two hearings by the seminary’s sexual harassment task force. The panel placed Snyder on probation and distributed letters telling the seminary’s 250 students and faculty that he had been punished and why.

The panel ordered Snyder to get therapy and advised him not to be alone with students or staff members.

He is still teaching at the seminary, but not the introductory Bible class.

“I assume that some control of sexual harassment must be done,” Snyder said. “But when it enters into an issue of academic freedom, I don’t know the line. Part of what we’re doing here is to help develop that line.”

Snyder filed his Circuit Court lawsuit against the school and the disciplinary panel, asking for unspecified damages.

The panel’s inquiry into the incident was not completed until March, 1993, partly because Snyder was on sabbatical for four months. Snyder waited almost a year before filing his lawsuit because he was trying to work out an agreement with the school.

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Seminary President Kenneth Smith would not comment on the matter, directing calls to a lawyer who did not answer telephone messages.

“If I told a dirty story or made sexual advances, I could understand,” Snyder said. “But it never occurred to me I could have a grievance lodged against me.”

Snyder’s lawsuit will keep pressure on courts to address the conflict between free speech and sexual harassment, one observer said.

“So I welcome suits like this,” said Michael Greve, director of the Center for Individual Rights in Washington. “Many untenured professors or instructors take these charges lying down. They try to settle them behind closed doors because they are humiliating.”

Deborah Ellis, legal director of the National Organization for Women’s Legal Defense Fund in New York City, said the woman’s complaint would probably have been thrown out of court if she had filed charges instead.

“Conduct that is offensive is not sufficient to make out a claim of sexual harassment,” she said. “This points up the need for professors to be sensitive to a diverse student audience.”