Lawsuit against University of Alaska alleges Title IX violation
Story by Anna Lionas/ Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
A lawsuit filed in state court against the University of Alaska in January claims the institution mishandled a Title IX discrimination investigation, harming a University of Alaska Fairbanks grad student’s professional life, emotional and psychological well-being.
The case points to a larger theme of Title IX violations within the UA system, referencing the 2017 finding by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which determined through a four-year compliance review that UA violated Title IX in its response to sexual harassment complaints, including complaints of sexual assault and sexual violence and failing to protect its students and staff from discrimination on the basis of sex.
Title IX is a federal civil rights law that prevents sex discrimination in education. It covers all behaviors within university programs and activities.
The recent lawsuit claims that despite UA signing a resolution in 2017 to address the violations and concerns uncovered in the federal review, the “failures have continued until the present time, as demonstrated by the University’s indifferent response” to the plaintiff’s discrimination complaint.
The plaintiff claims she hasn’t received a followup to the resolution of her complaint after her last meeting with university officials more than seven months ago.
“The concern is that the university is still not handling Title IX violations, going from how long the complaints were taking to resolve to the fact that there weren't often supportive measures while the complaint was being investigated,” Goriune Dudukgian, the plaintiff’s attorney, told the News-Miner.
The plaintiff is represented by Northern Justice Project, a civil rights law firm based in Anchorage. This is the first time they’ve taken on a case representing a student that had been discriminated against by a faculty member, Dudukgian said.
The lawsuit filed in Fairbanks Superior Court on Jan. 30 claims the almost two-year process UA took to investigate the plaintiff’s discrimination complaint against her former faculty adviser in the UAF Department of Geosciences subjected her to years of further harassment and retaliation. The plaintiff is seeking economic and non-economic damages of a non-specified amount.
“Plaintiff has suffered lost educational opportunities and benefits, impaired reputation, lost income, and ongoing detrimental impacts on her physical and emotional health, including a diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,” the lawsuit states.
The plaintiff began her education at UAF in 2019 with her faculty adviser, a professor of geophysics, who also served as the direct supervisor for her research position. The alleged harassment against the plaintiff began in February 2020, when her adviser “created an intimidating, hostile and unsafe environment,” according to the document.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiff alleges the faculty member’s behavior toward her and other female colleagues was discriminatory, citing instances of scolding, demanding and yelling at the plaintiff on UAF campus and during field research, setting arbitrary deadlines and standards and threatening the plaintiff with her degree if she couldn’t meet them and excluding the plaintiff from opportunities that were shared with male students.
During field work in April 2022, the plaintiff alleged her adviser became irate when she and a colleague asked to take a break, driving his snowmachine directly at the plaintiff at high speed, stopping close to her, jumping off and yelling in her face.
The plaintiff made the first report against her adviser to UAF’s Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities in fall of 2022, but was hesitant to move forward with a formal complaint because he still oversaw her at the time. UAF’s Department of Equality and Compliance opened up an inquiry to the report but closed it in November 2022 at the plaintiff’s request.
In February 2023, the plaintiff’s faculty adviser found out about the complaint and immediately removed himself from her advisory committee. The plaintiff alleges the adviser began to retaliate against her, interfering with her authorship and publication of her first paper and denying her request to submit her revised manuscript, until two other faculty members stepped in.
The plaintiff met with UAF’s Office of Rights, Compliance and Accountability (ORCA) Director Kaydee Van Flein in January of 2024, after which ORCA opened an administrative investigation.
In subsequent months, the plaintiff alleges her adviser increased hostile contact toward her: deciding to attend a field expedition she was set to go on at the last minute and loitering outside her office, which was moved to a different building from his.
During this time the university issued a no-contact order to the faculty member, requiring him to avoid direct and indirect contact with the plaintiff.
The plaintiff claims she notified UA administrators after each breach of the no-contact directive but no enforcement measures were taken.
“As a result, the plaintiff was constantly in fear of her safety,” the lawsuit states.”She stopped coming to UAF campus, except for brief visits when necessary.”
The first investigation into the complaint found the faculty member’s treatment of the plaintiff inappropriate but not discriminatory. But a review requested by the plaintiff showed the first report failed to clearly identify the plaintiff ‘s allegations. In August 2024 the matter was remanded to ORCA by then-Chancellor Dan White and taken up again by an external investigator.
A second report issued in April 2025 found sex discrimination and retaliation occured, harming the plaintiff’s educational experience and delaying progress in her degree program.
The professor requested a review of the report on May 7, 2025. A university analysis later that month found the investigation to be sound. Chancellor White upheld the findings of sex discrimination and retaliation.
After the investigation was finalized, the plaintiff said she met with Van Flein and UAF administrators and discussed possible remedial actions. Since August 2025, the plaintiff claims to have received no update from UAF.
“It has now been more than seven months since the university made a final determination of sex discrimination and retaliation by one of its employees against plaintiff. Yet plaintiff still has not received, or even been offered any remedies from the University to make her whole,” the lawsuit states.
The plaintiff’s former faculty adviser is still employed as a professor at UAF.
The lawsuit alleges UAF’s failure to implement protective measures during and after the investigation and enforce the no-contact order left the plaintiff feeling unsafe on campus and during fieldwork, restricting her ability to be on campus and in the field thus impacting her degree. It also claims the delayed investigation, which took a total of 11 months, significantly surpasses UA’s Title IX policy for a 180 reasonably prompt investigation timeframe.
UA has 20 days from the date they’re served the suit to respond. A UAF spokesperson said the university has not received the lawsuit as of Monday, Feb. 9. On Monday morning, UA sent out a general email to all faculty, staff and students, notifying them of Title IX rights and resources.
“The University of Alaska (UA) is committed to providing a safe and respectful educational environment free from discrimination on the basis of sex, as required by Title IX,” the email began.
This story was first published in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
The story inspired us to check in with the people that make up our university, so we created this survey asking about your experiences with the Office of Rights, Compliance, and Accountability, or ORCA. Please take the time to fill it out. While you may do so anonymously, we need people willing to stand by their stories if they hope to see the system improved. Above all, we at The Sun Star protect our sources.