Was famous Cornell professor a harasser or the victim of a witch hunt?
Washington, D.C.- The New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, agreed today to hear an appeal from Cornell University psychology professor James Mass, the nationally known researcher and filmmaker accused of sexual harassment by former students. Maas is asking the court to reinstate his lawsuit, which charges that Cornell failed to follow its own proceedures for investigating and adjudicating sexual harassment charges. Lower courts had previously dimissed the suit without reaching the merits of Maas’s claims. Maas claims that Cornell prevented him from questioning his accusers, denied him the right to counsel and even the right to select an advisor, failed to adhere to its own definition of sexual harassment, and violated promises of confidentiality. Maas is represented by the Center for Individual Rights (CIR) in Washington and New York attorney David Stoll. The accusations against Professor Maas in 1994 set off a long-running and highly publicized debate on the Cornell c
