A professor at the University of Georgia who has been accused of sexually harassing female undergraduates for nearly two decades will resign by the end of the academic year.
William Neil Bender, a professor of communications and special education at Georgia, has faced a slew of complaints from undergraduate women since 1989 — including allegations that he told female students sexually suggestive jokes, invited them to his lake house to swim and use his Jacuzzi, and made unwelcome remarks about their bodies. The allegations are detailed in a lengthy article today in Georgia’s student newspaper, The Red and Black.
The latest allegations against Mr. Bender were made last summer by the husband of one of Mr. Bender’s students, who complained to the university that the professor and the man’s wife had had a sexual relationship. In addition, two female students complained to the university last summer about Mr. Bender’s behavior toward them.
According to the student newspaper, the university found Mr. Bender guilty of sexual harassment, but it is allowing him to educate two online courses this semester under the agreement that he “refrain from having private and/or personal interactions with university students,” according to the student newspaper, which cited documents it had obtained from the university’s legal-affairs office.
The student newspaper did not seek comment from the professor. —Robin Wilson