Henri Grissino-Mayer was a tenured faculty member in the department of Geography at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville who resigned in lieu of termination on Oct. 1st, 2018 due to his own admission of sexual misconduct at the school.
[2] His thesis research directed by David Butler (now at Texas State University, San Marcos) investigated the relationships between climate and growth of shortleaf pine in north-central Georgia.
His case is one of a number on U.S. campuses in which senior academics have been accused of using their position to legitimate or conceal sexual behavior involving students.
The 2018 investigation stated that Grissino-Mayer, through “abuse of his power and position as a tenured full professor with an active research program, a well-funded laboratory and a steady pipeline of high-achieving graduate students, had inappropriate relationships with current and former students, including inappropriate sexual relationships.” [12] On August 10, 2018, Grissino-Mayer met with several faculty members, where he admitted that he “not only violated the university’s policy,” but also that he “knew” and understood that “he was violating the policy at the time of his misconduct.” Grissino-Mayer would only admit that he violated policy in relation to the initial complaint but within a couple of days following that complaint a packet containing multiple other complaints was received by the Title IX office, suggesting his misconduct spanned most of his career.
With verbal and written complaints filed by 11 women, both current and past students, along with witness accounts of inappropriate actions, the department of OEDs investigation came to the conclusion that Grissino-Mayer's misconduct spanned years and that the allegations “more likely than not are true.”[13][14] https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/education/2018/10/03/henri-grissino-mayer-tennessee-sexual-harassment/1485477002/