Sexual harassment allegations against professors set o! social media frenzy at

By Diti Kohli Globe Correspondent, Updated March 16, 2020, 4:42 p.m.

Berklee College of Music DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFF

One Berklee College of Music professor was put on leave after a student reported that he bought her alcohol at a bar and asked her to join him in a public restroom to “shake his penis.”

Another professor has been under investigation for allegedly putting a clarinet between his legs in front of a class and instructing a female student to blow into the mouthpiece. She felt her professor was “emulating a sexual act.”

And one of the elite music school’s best-known faculty members, Livingston Taylor, is facing complaints from two women who accuse him of making inappropriate remarks about their bodies in class. A young harpist took to Instagram to say the professor said that “my body/appearance is my biggest asset.”

“My professor told me that I will be successful in music because men are drawn to me in a sexual way,” wrote the student, Leng Bian. She did not name Taylor in the post, but three students in the class confirmed he made the remarks.

The allegations set off a firestorm on social media after the accusers uploaded accounts of their professors’ conduct to Instagram and Facebook. Two Facebook groups are, sometimes-heatedly, debating whether the 6,700-student school in the Back Bay has a permissive attitude toward sexual harassment. Part of Leng Bian's Instagram post detailing her account in Livingston Taylor's stage performance class. LENG BIAN

Meanwhile, an appeal for students to share their sexual harassment stories on a Google Form resulted in numerous reports of alleged inappropriate conduct by students or faculty members at Berklee.

“Berklee’s clearly doing something that’s not right,“ said Georgeta Seserman, the Berklee alum who organized the Google outreach. “So I’ve started this report against Berklee — just this compilation of everything students said and that I know about how Berklee’s doing their sanctioning and investigating.”

Berklee officials declined to comment on specific cases, but, late on Monday, college officials notified the student who complained about her clarinet instructor that the professor had been terminated. Peter Cokkinias was removed from his part-time position after a two-month investigation by Berklee’s Office of Equity and Title IX.

Roger Brown, the college’s president, said in a statement last week that the school takes all misconduct allegations seriously to create “a safe, respectful, and equitable environment for our students, faculty, and staff.”

“We are aware that students have shared strong feelings online,” Brown continued. “We continue to strongly encourage any member of our community who witnesses or experiences harassment or discrimination to report it to our Equity Team.” Livingston Taylor, shown performing in New Hope, Pa., in 2016, has been placed on leave by Berklee College of Music. BOBBY BANK/GETTY IMAGES/FILE

Taylor, who has been placed on leave during the investigation, said in a statement that “he is confident that he will be cleared of the charges.” It’s unclear whether Taylor will be paid during the leave.

The uproar comes less than three years after Berklee’s Brown vowed big changes following a Globe investigation that found numerous cases of male professors who were allowed to leave campus quietly after students reported being assaulted, groped, or pressured into sex by their teachers. Eleven Berklee professors were terminated for sexual misconduct in the 13 years preceding the investigation’s publication. Since the 2017 investigation, Berklee has expanded its sexual misconduct policy to prohibit relationships between students and faculty and added staff in the equity office, while requiring consent and bystander intervention training for new hires.

“In the past two years in particular, we have worked hard to improve our channels for reporting incidents and expanding resources for affected community members,” Brown said.

But the cluster of new sexual harassment allegations — all based on incidents that took place since July — raises questions of whether Berklee has done enough to reform its process. Some students say the equity office is much too slow and often hands out lenient punishments for misconduct.

“The equity office, while it has come a long way, still fails students regularly,” said Sydney Smith, a Berklee student who served on the group that drafted the school’s new sexual misconduct policy.

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The social media frenzy started on Feb. 29.

Only two months away from her Berklee graduation, Leng Bian posted a black-and- white photo of her smiling and holding her harp — her “favorite pic” of herself, according to the caption. Below the picture, she detailed the sexual comments she allegedly endured from her unnamed professor — identified by others as Taylor — in the 32-student class. With more than 3,000 likes and 300 comments, her public post encouraged the administration to terminate her alleged abuser.

Bian, who could not be reached for comment, reported the issue to the equity office before posting online. A male student who spoke with the Globe said that while he found Bian’s story factually correct, he believes she misinterpreted the comments from Taylor, who he described as “an old man who is just out of touch.”

“I don’t think he had any intention of making her feel so disgusting,” he said. “But the fact is that he did.”

One of Bian’s peers filed her own complaint against the professor, a popular singer- songwriter as well as the brother of , who has taught at Berklee for decades. She said that Livingston Taylor called her “short” and “chunky” in a chat after class. She also said Taylor told her that “people that look like you don’t get seen, you have to see others.” The woman has contacted the equity office about opening an official investigation.

The week following Bian’s post, chief equity officer Kelly Downes sent an e-mail to students saying the professor had been placed on leave. Taylor’s classes were canceled for a week and are now being taught by a substitute, according to students in the class.

Spurred by Bian’s willingness to make her case public, senior Mina Alali drafted her own Instagram and Facebook posts three days later.

Like many students, Alali considered Peyman Farzinpour, who is an award-winning conductor, to be an excellent teacher and close mentor. She said their relationship changed one night in July 2019 when he allegedly took her out for pizza and wine followed by visits to two bars, all the while making repeated sexual comments. Alali even has an audio recording from the night in which a man asks her to join him in the restroom, after which she promptly asks for the check. Peyman Farzinpour conducted Ensemble/Parallax at Eastern Connecticut State University on Oct. 18, 2017. EASTERN CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY

On Instagram, she posted a picture of herself in the tank top and shorts she wore the night in question along with a seven-paragraph account of the incident.

“What was supposed to be a coffee outing to discuss mental health, mindfulness, meditation, turned into a date-like outing where he explicitly expressed his sexual attraction to me,” she wrote.

Farzinpour’s lawyer, Andrew T. Miltenberg, denied what he called “false and malicious allegations, which are clearly meant to malign (Farzinpour) and destroy his career.” Miltenberg also said Alali “aggressively pursued a romantic encounter” with the professor, and that “when he refused, it set her on a course of vindictiveness.” Student- teacher relationships are prohibited in Berklee’s relationship policy. Part of Mina Alali's Instagram post MINA ALALI

After a six-month-long investigation during which Farzinpour was on paid leave from his part-time position, the equity office placed the professor on 30 days of unpaid leave in late January 2020. A month later, Farzinpour returned to the college and assumed his normal duties. The equity office also gave him a written warning and restricted the professor’s interactions with students outside of class. No statement about his disciplinary measures was sent to the student body.

Alali, meanwhile, moved home to California last fall and began taking online classes to complete her remaining graduation requirements.

Initially, Alali said, she had intended to remain silent until graduation, “but seeing Leng’s post — how she came out while she was still a student — it got me.”

Farzinpour is now considering legal action against the college, who he believes mishandled the situation.

Three days after Alali’s post, a third student, Rory McFadden, joined the list of public accusers, posting on Instagram about a third professor.

Rory McFadden wrote that her professor, identified as Peter Cokkinias by three students, made her uncomfortable during a class early last fall when he placed a clarinet between his legs and instructed her to blow into it. A few weeks later, she said he asked her to do it again. The post included two pictures of herself — one smiling, the other on the verge of tears, which she said was “what it really felt like.” Part of Rory McFadden's Instagram post RORY MCFADDEN Cokkinias, a woodwind performer and former grade school teacher, did not respond to repeated calls and e-mails.

McFadden, a music education and songwriting major, complained to the equity office, which opened an investigation on Jan. 17. Late on Monday, March 16, the college notified McFadden that Cokkinias had been terminated.

Tim Smith and two other students who spoke to the Globe said that Cokkinias’s method where he put the clarinet between his legs was “uncomfortable” and “ridiculous.” Each source said the breathing exercise could have been demonstrated differently.

“The only thing I can’t say is what HE thought,” wrote Smith in a Facebook message. "but definitely I hold him accountable as nasty for the incident I saw personally.”

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Online and on campus, the college is buzzing over the public wave of accusations.

Posts have flooded students’ meme and conversation Facebook group, currently named Overheard @ Berklee College Of Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself. Alali’s post also found its way to another private Facebook group, the Berklee Parent Network. The three original Instagram posts garnered dozens of supportive and critical comments each. And students have posed questions on Facebook discussion tabs, asking peers what they can do to better campus culture.

President Brown simply encouraged students taking to the Internet to trust in the equity office instead.

“We appreciate that this process can be frustrating, but equity investigations must be undertaken deliberately,” said Brown in his statement. "A rush to make a determination is not fair to either party, and could result in decisions being overturned.

Both Alali and McFadden did report having positive experiences with the equity office initially. But the women said their trust withered for myriad reasons, including months without updates, vague e-mails, or what they felt were unsatisfactory sanctions against professors during and after the investigations ended.

“We believe in the integrity of our process, and have confidence in the outcomes assigned in each case, based on the information and evidence available,” said Brown.

Now the conversation has jumped into real life.

Late Tuesday, March 10, a list of professors hit with rumored allegations popped up around campus. White paper fliers taped to buildings, doors, and hallways on campuses named eight professors, including Taylor, Farzinpour, and Cokkinias. Underneath the names in bold black print reads “WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED.”

Berklee Public Safety took down the fliers as fast as they went up.

Some are motivated by the virtual chaos to voice their own stories — two students with unreported claims messaged McFadden the day she posted online.

With this newfound attention on the school’s equity policies, Alali feels motivated that change is near. But after being disappointed by the college’s actions in the past, she is nervous about raising her expectations.

“I feel empowered,” she said. “And hopeless at the same time.”

Diti Kohli can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @ditikohli_. Show 14 comments

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