Two former students of an acclaimed Boston University music professor have brought detailed accusations against him for sexual harassment, in a lawsuit claiming the university protected the professor despite evidence of his serial offenses.

The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday morning in Massachusetts superior court, accuses Professor Eric Ruske of making repeated unwanted comments toward Erin Shyr and Maria Currie – two undergraduate women – about their bodies and clothing, and suggesting to the students that they send him nude photographs.

The two women say they separately brought copies of Ruske’s harassing texts and emails to numerous members of Boston University’s faculty, but received a muted response. Both are suing for emotional distress, and Shyr is claiming Ruske sexually assaulted her “by placing her in fear that he would engage in or attempt to engage in unlawful sexual conduct”.

Ruske is an accomplished horn soloist who has been working at Boston University since 2000 and is an active faculty member of the College of Fine Arts. A spokesman for the university declined to comment, saying the school had not viewed the complaint. Ruske’s voicemail greeting indicated he was out of the country until June. The professor did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.

The allegations against Ruske are extensive and highly detailed, pulling from what the lawsuit claims are Ruske’s text and email exchanges with the students.

“You can always send pix,” Ruske allegedly texted Currie in 2013, according to the suit. Currie, who believed the request was for nude photographs, replied, “Ha, no promises.” The suit claims Ruske replied: “Of course not … a girl can dream, though.”

The suit claims that in a meeting Currie requested for feedback on a musical performance, Ruske compared her performance to sex, “stating that listening to [her] play made him feel like the two of them were having sexual intercourse but that [she], though very beautiful, was only lying there and not doing anything”. Later, the lawsuit claims, Ruske sent her an apologetic email.

Currie complained to a member of the administration who said she should have told Ruske to stop texting her, the lawsuit says.

With Shyr, Ruske allegedly initiated an email exchange during the 2014 spring break by praising her performance in his class. Shyr thanked him and rebuffed his familiarity, writing, “Mr Ruske, it wouldn’t make me uncomfortable to call you Eric, but I think it’s only right for me to show you respect by calling you Mr Ruske.”

“Absolutely adorable, you are!!!” he replied. They wished each other a pleasant spring break, and Ruske replied, “Hooooray!!! Maybe you’ll share a cute pic with me… ;)” Shyr says she interpreted the message as a request for a nude photograph.

Both women say they are experiencing lasting emotional problems as a result of Ruske’s alleged harassment. Currie transferred to a neighboring university. Shyr has struggled to complete school work, and both suffer fears of running into Ruske, the suit claims. They are seeking unspecified damages.

The lawsuit also claims that, when they complained, Shyr and Currie received little support from administrators. In separate conversations with both women, one administrator suggested that because of Ruske’s “vibrant” or “effusive” personality, he did not understand that he was doing wrong, according to the lawsuit.

The US Department of Education has been investigating Boston University since 1 May 2014 for violations of the federal rules on investigating sexual assault.

Tuesday’s lawsuit claims that the set of new policies Boston University wrote in response to the investigation nevertheless “favors perpetrators of harassment over victims” because it does not require specific sanctions for sexual harassment.



The suit also accuses Boston University of violating a host of policies the school itself put in place for addressing complaints, including a failure to tell the two students the outcomes of their complaints, and continuing to assign Ruske to teach undergraduate and graduate students. Over Shyr’s objections, Ruske also retained the power to assign her a grade in the spring semester of 2014.

The women further claim that these failures are part and parcel of a culture of harassment at Boston University. They claim Ruske has a reputation for this kind of behavior. And in 2007 and 2013, the suit says, two College of Fine Arts faculty were accused of sexual assault, but failed to publicize the results of any investigation, allowing the two instructors to continue teaching elsewhere.