This story was published by the Valley News on June 26.
HANOVER, N.H. — A second Dartmouth College professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences has been ousted in the wake of a sexual misconduct inquiry.
Paul Whalen resigned, effective immediately, following a recommendation he be fired and his tenure revoked, Dartmouth President Phil Hanlon said in an email to the college community this morning.
Former Professor Todd Heatherton retired on June 14 following a similar recommendation.
Hanlon’s email says a separate recommendation has been made regarding a third professor, William Kelley, and is under review by the faculty-elected Council on Academic Freedom and Responsibility.
Dartmouth had placed the three professors on paid leave in October amid allegations of “serious misconduct.” The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office then opened a criminal investigation because at least some of the allegations involved potential “sexual misconduct,” and Hanlon’s email today specifically says Whalen, Kelley, and Heatherton “were investigated for alleged sexual misconduct” by the college.
The Attorney General Office’s investigation remains ongoing, Associate Attorney General Jane Young said in an email this afternoon.
Hanlon’s email said Dartmouth did not enter into a separation or non-disclosure agreement with Whalen and did not give him any severance payments. He had been on paid leave, and will continue to be barred from campus or from attending any Dartmouth-sponsored events, no matter the location, Hanlon’s email said.
Efforts to reach Whalen today have been unsuccessful.
Heatherton, because of his age and length of service, was able to retire, but that option was not available to Whalen, according to Hanlon.
Whalen had worked at Dartmouth since 2005. He graduated from Stonehill College in 1986 and received a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Vermont in 1993, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He came to Dartmouth from University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he had been an assistant professor.
Whalen’s areas of expertise include affective neuroscience, facial expressions, and the amygdala, part of the brain that deals with emotions, according to an archived version of his Dartmouth profile, which is no longer on the college website.
