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James Madison University: Psychology Professor Investigated, Cleared for In-Class Comments

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James Madison University

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Case Overview

FIRE Victory closed

In April 2023, James Madison University Psychology professor Gregg Henriques learned JMU was investigating him regarding a complaint filed by an anonymous student alleging he had made two dozen harassing comments that created a hostile environment in his doctoral courses. These pedagogical comments included phrases like “emotions are like orgasms” to analogize the experience of human emotion to the sexual response cycle, and “pinky dick” to convey inferiority complexes and overcompensation in a class on psychodynamic theory. FIREwrote JMU on August 23, 2023, arguing that Henriques’s comments were protected by the First Amendment because they were pedagogically relevant and urging the university to conclude its investigation in Henriques’s favor. With the help of an attorney secured through ֭’s Faculty Legal Defense Fund, JMU cleared Henriques of all wrongdoing in January 2024, finding his comments pedagogically relevant and not sexual harassment. 

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