On August 28, 2024, the Sixth Circuit in Huang v. Ohio State Univ., 6th Cir., No. 23-03469 (Aug. 28, 2024) –—in a case with broader implications for the employment status of graduate students—reversed the Southern District of Ohio’s summary judgment ruling that dismissed a graduate student Plaintiff’s Title VII quid pro quo sexual harassment and retaliation claims against Ohio State and Plaintiff’s academic advisor. The parties will now go to trial, absent settlement, on whether the graduate student was an employee under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act at the time of her Graduate Fellow appointment, when her academic advisor allegedly engaged in sexual harassment.
Background
In 2018, a Plaintiff graduate student at The Ohio State University (“Ohio State”), alleged that her academic advisor sexually harassed and assaulted her while she pursued her PhD.
Upon matriculation to Ohio State, Plaintiff had accepted two overlapping offers: (1) enrollment at Ohio State as a Graduate Research Associate (“GRA”) in the engineering department’s PhD program; and (2) a Graduate Fellow position that would fund her tuition and provide her with a stipend and extra bonus for the first two years of her studies.
Under the GRA offer, it is undisputed that Plaintiff would have been classified by Ohio State as an “employee” under the common-law agency doctrine for purposes of Title VII liability. As outlined here, the common law agency doctrine is the standard applied to employment status under...
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