TAMPA — The University of South Florida has removed the head of a school technology center after learning his previous employer found he engaged in inappropriate, on-campus sexual behavior.

Herb Maschner, 57, learned Wednesday that he will no longer serve as executive director of the new USF Center for Virtualization and Applied Spatial Technologies. An acting director will soon be named.

The move came after the Tampa Bay Times revealed he was accused of sexually harassing a coworker, a 28-year-old graduate student at Idaho State University when they met.

Maschner showered the woman with unwanted attention for four months before he forcibly kissed and groped her in October 2013 on the university campus in the western Idaho city of Pocatello, according to Idaho court records.

USF officials said Maschner, who started at USF in August 2015, didn't tell his boss about the sexual harassment finding until last month — more than a year later. He did so after learning a newspaper in Idaho was about to publish a story on the student's pending lawsuit against Idaho State for its handling of the matter.

Leadership in USF's College of Arts and Sciences spent several weeks meeting with Maschner and multiple faculty and staff members before deciding to change his assignment, USF spokeswoman Lara Wade said in an email to the Times.

They believe the change "will facilitate greater productivity and success for him and his colleagues," Wade wrote.

Now, faculty members at the center, which digitally documents archeological finds, will report to their department chairs instead of Maschner.

Maschner also has been stripped of all governance responsibilities, such as committee assignments or evaluative functions, in the Department of Anthropology and the School of Geosciences, where he holds a joint appointment as a professor, Wade said.

In an Oct. 28 anthropology faculty meeting, held the day after the Times' story on Maschner's history at Idaho State appeared, members expressed concern that the negative publicity would affect the reputation of their department and harm recruitment.

The 18 faculty members voted unanimously to send the following statement to Eric Eisenberg, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences:

"That the chair … and the faculty of the Department of Anthropology request that the dean identify a way to disassociate our department from professor Herb Maschner and to rescind his membership in the department immediately. In addition, we express concern for individuals under his supervision and encourage this to be taken up by administration at USF."

According to minutes taken at the anthropology meeting, faculty questioned Maschner's hiring process, noting that while he did complete an interview via Skype, he never interviewed with individual faculty members as part of the screening process.

"There appeared to be a rush to fill this position and therefore people felt pressured and rushed in to making a decision," the meeting minutes say.

USF officials acknowledged the process of hiring Maschner did not include the same reference checks "routinely applied to other searches at the time and now required by USF policy in all searches," Wade said in an emailed statement.

Maschner was actively recruited by USF for his position, and was instrumental in securing a $4.6 million grant provided by the Hitz Foundation in January 2016 to support the creation of the center he directed.

In a meeting of Geosciences faculty, also held Oct. 28, faculty said they had received no guidance from Eisenberg, the Arts and Sciences dean, about how to address students' questions about Maschner, according to meeting minutes. Chair of the School of Geosciences Mark Rains is working with the university's Title IX department to ensure proper procedures and "multiple check points" are in place, the minutes said.

Maschner's benefits and $195,000 salary will remain in place for at least 90 days, Wade said. His future compensation and title will be determined in consultation with him as part of his nine-month faculty assignment, she said.

Contact Anastasia Dawson at adawson@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3377. Follow @adawsonwrites