Lawsuit filed against both BU and CFA professor
Two women filed the lawsuit for alleged sexual harassment
Maria Currie, a former student at Boston University, and Erin Shyr, a current CFA student, filed a lawsuit against BU and a professor. They accuse him of sexual harassment in 2013 and 2014, respectively.
The professor in question is Eric Ruske, a French horn player and professor at the College of Fine Arts. Ruske has taught at BU since 1990 and was about 50 years old at the time of these incidents.
According to the complaint, Ruske has a reputation for making “offensive, vulgar, and sexually charged statements to students.”
Marie and Erin said BU has done nothing to stop Ruske’s actions and the university simply comes up with excuses for what he does. As the complaint says, because of this, “BU allowed Ruske… to sexually harass numerous young, female students.”
Maria claims Ruske compared a trumpet performance of hers to sex. Later, he also suggest she sends pictures of herself to him.
The following semester, Erin participated in a woodwind chamber group coached by Ruske. She said that during spring break, Ruske emailed her asking for “a cute pic,” followed by a winking emoji. Ruske then greeted Erin with hugs and kisses on the cheek and also grazed her lower back once.
Both students claimed they reported the incidents to multiple administrators at the CFA and at BU, but nothing came out of it.
As Maria Currie said in a phone interview with the Boston Globe, when she reported the incident to CFA officials, she just wanted to prevent someone else from being harassed, but then soon learned it had already happened to Erin.