External Report Finds Dartmouth Faculty Member Not Responsible for Misconduct Allegations

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HANOVER, N.H. – May 6, 2021 - In early August 2020, Dartmouth commissioned an external investigation of allegations of sexual or gender-based harassment and retaliation against multiple Dartmouth community members made by graduate student Maha Hasan Alshawi, the findings of which the parties agreed would be publicly shared.

The external investigation, conducted by Maureen Holland and Peter Lim of the Institutional Response Group at the Cozen O’Connor law firm, followed multiple reviews previously undertaken by Dartmouth in accordance with existing policies, practices, and procedures. 

The first of the firm’s final investigation reports concerns Alshawi’s allegations against Professor Alberto Quattrini Li. Following an external review of all available information, as stated in the executive summary of the report published on April 30 (PDF), the investigators found the following:

  • Li did not commit any of the conduct Alshawi alleged. By a preponderance of the evidence, the investigators found that Li did not engage in any conduct that would constitute sexual or gender-based harassment or retaliation; and that
  • Li took “extraordinary steps to support Maha and to assist her in continuing to access Dartmouth’s education program despite the difficulties she was reporting with peers and as related to her previous experiences at the American University in Cairo”; and that
  • Dartmouth followed its procedures, reached reasonable and factually-supported conclusions in evaluating the information available at the time, and took reasonable action in response to Alshawi’s allegations at the time.

The full report is available upon request. Please make written requests to office.of.the.provost@dartmouth.edu with the subject line “External Investigation MHA Report.”