Amid a national debate about how colleges and universities should handle allegations of sexual misconduct, a federal appeals court upheld a decision by Valencia College to suspend a student for a year after he was accused of sexual harassing another student.

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit rejected arguments by Jeffrey Koeppel that the college had violated his First Amendment and due-process rights and the federal education law known as Title IX, which addresses discrimination based on sex.