Gabrielle Russon
At the University of Central Florida (UCF), professor James Hickman was doing cutting-edge research in his lab to study spinal cord repair, ALS, Alzheimer’s and more.
Since Hickman was recruited to the Orlando school two decades ago, he helped bring a multimillion-dollar grant and was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors for his work.
But since October, the professor has been banned from returning to his lab at NanoScience Technology Center or checking his email. Hickman has been rocked by a scandal in his lab and is suspended without pay from his $187,435 per year job until Aug. 8.
The school said Hickman failed to report two men’s sexual harassment allegations against a fellow female graduate student in the lab.
Hickman is suing UCF to get reinstated with back pay, arguing he was deprived of his due process rights and UCF’s decision to suspend him “was not supported by competent, substantial evidence.”
Court records document the drama unfolding in Hickman’s lab.
According to a school investigative report, a fed-up male graduate student quit Hickman’s lab in 2023.
Shortly after the male student quit, his guardian or representative contacted Hickman on the student’s behalf. The female student was a “sexual predator,” the student’s guardian complained to Hickman. The female graduate student allegedly had asked the male student out and then sought revenge after he rejected her romantic advances.
The female student remained working in Hickman’s lab.
By April 2024, Hickman was brought in as a witness in a human resources investigation after the female student filed a harassment complaint against a second male graduate student. Eventually, however, Hickman himself would become under Title IX investigation for not reporting the sexual harassment he learned about in 2023.
Hickman sat down to speak with school officials as part of the probe. Hickman shared what the male student’s guardian told him in 2023.
Hickman also spoke in April with a second male student in his lab who had a similar experience with the female student. The second male student reported the female student asked him out and then made his life “difficult” when he rejected her, according to the school investigation.
Hickman was now under the microscope because the school said he had not given either men resources or guided them on how to report their concerns.
Hickman argued he didn’t report the situation in 2023 because he considered it to be “hearsay” since Hickman didn’t hear the allegations directly from the male student.
“Tracking down every rumor causes huge problems. Every advice from HR is to act on concrete issues,” Hickman said, according to the investigation report.
Hickman also didn’t tell the school about his recent April conversations with the second male student until June, the school said.
With the semester winding down in the Spring of 2024, Hickman met with the female student.
Hickman confronted her that she had a reputation as a sexual predator at the May 6 meeting, the school investigative report said.
Outraged, the female student quit the lab, Hickman’s lawsuit said.
The next day, Hickman discovered the female student “terminated the active cell culture being worked on, as well as potentially erasing the data collected,” Hickman’s lawsuit said.
It was a major setback so the data they had been working on for months was lost.
“Dr. Hickman’s lab had numerous students, many of whom learned of the (female student’s) protocol deviations, unusable data and improper endpoints at different times, to different degrees, and on different tests,” said the lawsuit, which included students’ statements complaining about the female student’s sloppiness and disregard for following lab rules.
A week after the grades went out, Hickman retroactively lowered the female student’s grade from “acceptable” to “unacceptable.”
On May 22, Hickman discovered he was under investigation for failure to report allegations of sexual harassment. But that wasn’t the only complaint into Hickman.
The female student accused Hickman of retaliation for lowering her grade.
“It’s unfair for my grade to be changed to unsatisfactory when there was an issue with the cells,” the female student wrote in an email to the school. She also believed Hickman was punishing her because she raised concerns the second male student omitted her name as an author for a research publication.
The school called Hickman “dismissive” in his interview and the investigation ruled Hickman had retaliated against the female student because he knew “well before” May 6 that her data was not usable but waited until later to change her grade.
Hickman’s lawsuit said he was blinded by the school probe and hadn’t gotten the opportunity to defend himself.
Hickman complained to school officials in an email that said he felt attacked because of the female student’s allegations against the male student. “It all seems to be an effort to say my lab has a bad environment and to go after me. This place is so unethical and mean spirited,” he wrote.
Hickman’s unpaid suspension began on Oct. 8. He unsuccessfully appealed the school’s decision and then sued in November in Orange Circuit Court. His lawsuit said his suspension “barred and halted Dr. Hickman’s past and present work and projects, leaving him in a position of compromise.” For PhD students, they are left in limbo without their advisor and mentor.
UCF declined to comment and Hickman’s attorney could not be reached for comment.
