A star scholar scheduled to start a new job at Rutgers University next week was accused of making inappropriate sexual remarks and creating a sexual culture in her former job that prompted complaints from co-workers and students, a report said.

Marybeth Gasman -- who is slated to take a $250,000-a-year post heading an institute and an academic center at Rutgers on Sunday -- was accused of creating a “culture of sexual harassment” by a small group of former assistants who filed a formal complaint in 2017 at the University of Pennsylvania, according to a report by Inside Higher Ed, an industry publication.

Gasman was accused of creating an overly sexualized, racially insensitive and bullying culture in Penn’s Center for Minority Serving Institutions, which she founded and ran, the report said.

Her former assistants accused her of making repeated references to her body and sex life, commenting on co-workers’ sex lives, rubbing the arms and chests of Hispanic and black co-workers and encouraging her staff to have sex with each other, the report said. Many of the conversations took place in group texts for graduate students and other scholars working at the center.

Marybeth Gasman is accused of fostering a hypersexualized and racially insensitive climate in her research center https://t.co/wpOJSH04dO Story by @ColleenFlahert1 — Scott Jaschik (@ScottJaschik) August 27, 2019

“I don’t think anyone who’s spent time with Marybeth denies that she behaved or behaves this way,” a former graduate assistant who asked to remain anonymous told Inside Higher Ed. “We just disagree about whether that behavior is appropriate in a power dynamic where she gatekeeps access to a lot of academic resources not otherwise available to marginalized students.”

Gasman did not respond to Inside Higher Ed’s requests to comment. She also did not immediately respond to NJ Advance Media’s request to comment.

The group that accused Gasman of inappropriate behavior at Penn said the university launched a formal investigation in 2017 and hired an independent investigator. Some sanctions were put in place to change the culture of the center, master’s students were moved to another part of the campus and some people were required to undergo training, the report said.

The former assistants who filed the complaints said they were never told if the investigation found Gasman violated the university’s sexual harassment rules.

Gasman, a renowned scholar who studies historically black colleges and universities, is scheduled to start Sunday at Rutgers as a distinguished professor with an endowed chair in education. She will serve as the executive director of both the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Leadership, Equity & Justice and the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions.

When asked if Rutgers knew Gasman had been the subject of an investigation at Penn, university officials said she was vetted before the school announced her hiring in December.

“Rutgers is committed to maintaining an educational climate in which all members of the university community are valued, respected and treated with dignity,” Rutgers officials said in a statement. “The Graduate School of Education vetted Dr. Gasman before her appointment and eagerly looks forward to her joining the faculty as an internationally recognized expert in U.S. higher education.”

Gasman’s hiring letter at Rutgers says she was given a five-year employment agreement that includes a $250,000 annual salary and up to $10,000 in moving expenses. She will also get $80,000 annually to fund her research. Gasman will bring more than $4 million in grants from various foundations to Rutgers, her deal said.

Penn declined to comment on its investigation of Gasman, telling Inside Higher Ed that the scholar “got an excellent offer from Rutgers and chose to take it.”

Rutgers is in the midst of rewriting its sexual harassment policies following an NJ Advance Media report published last year that found the university failed to investigate allegations by some students who accused professors of sexual misconduct because the incidents happened more than two years ago.

Rutgers dropped that two-year policy within hours of the publication of an NJ Advance Media report last October. The university also announced it would form a task force to overhaul its sexual misconduct policy.

The committee was asked to look at Rutgers’ rules on consensual relationships between employees and students, ways to be more transparent about sexual misconduct investigations and new training for deans and department chairs on how to respond to sexual harassment incidents.

Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KellyHeyboer. Find her at KellyHeyboerReporter on Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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