Kate Murphy

kmurphy@enquirer.com

A pre-med student is challenging the University of Cincinnati’s practice of restricting men and women from working together in physics labs.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, Casey Helmicki, 19, said UC and its professors are encouraging gender-based discrimination in direct violation of federal Title IX provisions and the equal protection clause in the 14th Amendment.

The lawsuit asks UC to stop the practice of segregating any class or educational program by sex.

“It’s a little bit demoralizing to realize that we weren’t able to work with other genders in the lab,” Helmicki told The Enquirer. “As a woman in science, studying chemistry and neuroscience, it was alarming that a school like UC would allow something like this to be permitted in the classroom.”

The university, professor Larry Bortner, former Title IX Coordinator Jyl Shaffer, teaching assistant Mostafa El Demery and professor Kathleen Koenig are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

The Enquirer has contacted multiple UC officials seeking comment about the lawsuit, but as of late Tuesday, no response was provided. UC has until July 25 to respond to the lawsuit in federal court.

The Enquirer had requested documents regarding another Title IX investigation filed in February, but the university denied the request, citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

The university also failed to provide requested records of all Title IX cases against UC and their outcomes since 2010.

Helmicki said that on the first day of physics lab in August, a teaching assistant told her to sit and work only with other female students. The assistant, identified as El Demery, told her “women shouldn’t be working with men in science.”

Bortner, who charged El Demery with those instructions, defended the policy when Helmicki approached him with concerns shortly after that class, she said.

Helmicki then approached Koenig, an associate professor in the physics department. Koenig insisted that neither UC nor the department had such policies and the separation shouldn’t be happening, Helmicki said.

Days later, Koenig brought the issue to Bortner and he further defended his method that “having all-female groups is better” in a Sept. 2 email exchange.

Bortner also explained the reasoning behind the policy in a Sept. 9 email to the Title IX Coordinator Shaffer, who has since resigned. Karla Phillips is serving as the university’s interim Title IX coordinator.

Helmicki’s attorney, Chris Finney, filed copies of the email exchanges among university officials with the lawsuit.

“Physicists are predominantly male,” Bortner wrote. “To change this, we try to make the educational environment open to females. Studies have shown that females do better in small lab groups (three or four) that contain more females than males than more males than females. I train instructors who teach the labs and have told them to rearrange groups if there is one female with three males; if at all possible have all-female groups.”

Shaffer backed Bortner’s policy multiple times in emails on Sept. 11. In one message, she wrote the practice was not “inherently inequitable,” but the university needs to ensure it doesn’t create an appearance of discrimination. She later recommended creating an “opt-out” alternative for students.

Shaffer asked staff members to study federal guidelines that would support implementing single-sex programs in education. Finney said the practice is “not constitutional and not legal for university-level education.”

“This has gone to the highest level of the university and we’ve tried to fix it in every commodious way possible,” Finney said. “But this isn’t just about Casey, this is about the university as a whole.”

He said universities are preparing people for the workplace and since this type of discrimination isn’t allowed at work, it shouldn’t be allowed at UC, either.

Helmicki ended up transferring to a physics lab with a different professor. She did not know about an active Title IX investigation until she received an email that a report was filed under her name, opened and closed. After receiving the email, Helmicki went to Shaffer’s office and was told Bortner reported the matter on his own, causing UC to create a Title IX report, according to court documents.

Helmicki wants to become a physician and will apply to medical schools after graduating from UC. She fears the complaint will be a stain on her student record.

“I hadn’t even touched that piece of paper,” she said. “I wasn’t told about it until I got a random email that the complaint was closed.”

Despite university guidance that students should not be forced into a single-sex format without offering an alternative, Helmicki said women still work separately from men in physics labs. She said the policy is shocking “considering how far women have come in science fields.”

“You read about it and other issues in history books,” Helmicki said. “But it’s hard to realize in 2016 things like this could still be written into new ones.”

Physics case timeline

Here's a timeline of events based on documents provided in Casey Helmicki's lawsuit against UC:

August 2015 - Helmicki told to work only with other women in the physics lab, according to Professor Larry Bortner's policy.

September 2015 - Helmicki approaches Professor Kathleen Koenig with concerns. Koenig denies that there is such a policy. Bortner later defends his method that males and females should work separately in the lab. Bortner brings his method to the attention of Jyl Shaffer in the Title IX office. Shaffer backs Bortner's "research-based" method, but suggests an "opt-out" policy.

November 2015 - Helmicki learns about a Title IX complaint being filed with the university. Shaffer told her it was resolved informally.

February - Helmicki sends a letter to UC demanding an end to the lab practice.

April - Lori Ross, a UC attorney, replies to Helmicki's letter stating that the university advised the professor to change the policy and he did so.

July - Helmicki files a lawsuit challenging the policy.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Kathy Koenig's position. She is an associate professor in the physics department.