Authored By: Rob Mohr
According to Public Justice's case brief, Meng Huang arrived in America from China in 2014 to pursue a mechanical and aerospace engineering PhD from The Ohio State University (OSU). After graduating with a master's from the prestigious Tongi University in Shanghai, Huang received an offer from OSU to become a Graduate Research Assistant under OSU's Center for Automotive Research (CAR) director and professor Giorgio Rizzoni, who would also serve as her PhD advisor. She was then offered a Department of Energy graduate fellowship. Continuing her research on battery technology, she was assigned to work on the Ford University Research Project (URP), a collaboration between Ford Motor Company and OSU.
From the beginning of their relationship, Huang claims she was sexually harassed by Rizzoni, including inappropriate touching and unwanted sexual advances. She resisted Rizzoni's insistence that they meet alone on weekends to discuss her work and PhD. Huang also alleges Rizzoni retaliated against her for rejecting his advances by terminating her graduate fellow stipend in her last semester.
Furthermore, Huang accuses Rizzoni of rigging her PhD candidacy exam, which she failed. Rizzoni removed one of her supervisors from URP from her review panel and communicated with other panel members beforehand, calling Huang "a challenge" and saying, "I would like this exam to be a real exam. The outcome will be whatever it needs to be." Panel members described Huang's tone in the exam as "confrontational." At the same time, she characterized the questions she received as "unfair" and "designed to make her look bad." After failing the exam, she was denied an opportunity to retake it, breaking University custom. She was the first student under Rizzoni's to fail their candidacy exam. Rizzoni also informed Ford that Huang would no longer assist with the URP.
Four days after her exam, Huang reported the alleged harassment and retaliation to the engineering department chair. She was reassigned to a new advisor and completed her PhD. In August 2018, Huang filed a suit against Rizzoni and OSU, asserting her protections under Title VII employment law.
At trial, the Court ruled in favor of OSU and Rizzoni, citing that Huang was not an employee under Title VII when the retaliation occurred and, therefore, could not be affected by an "adverse employment action" required for a Title VII claim. Public Justice filed an amicus brief in support of Huang's employee classification. In August of 2024, the Sixth Circuit court ruled in Huang's favor that she could be classified as a student and employee simultaneously, regardless of her title.
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