The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has reaffirmed the court’s pleading standard for Title VII and Title IX claims in a case reviewing a tenured professor’s complaint that Princeton University violated his civil rights when he was terminated in 2018.

According to the opinion, Sergio Verdu, a tenured professor in Princeton’s electrical-engineering department, was terminated in 2018 after a graduate student, Yeohee Im, reported him for sexual harassment. After 35 years with the university, Verdu was fired following an investigation that revealed he violated the school’s sexual misconduct policy. Verdu was put on probation for one year.