A longtime Norwich University employee is accusing school leaders of sexual harassment, sex-based discrimination and creating a hostile environment, according to a lawsuit filed this week.

Elizabeth Kennedy, Norwich’s former vice president of development and alumni relations, accused top university leaders — including former president Mark Anarumo — of years of inappropriate and sexist behavior, according to a complaint filed Monday in Washington County Superior Court.

The 20-page complaint, which names the university as a defendant, details allegations of longstanding misbehavior by Anarumo and other leaders of the Northfield military university. 

Anarumo “regularly engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior, made inappropriate sexual comments, and otherwise directed inappropriate verbal and physical treatment toward women,” the lawsuit alleges.

Kennedy is seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages and to be reinstated to her former job, from which she was wrongfully removed, according to the complaint.

Marc Kolb, a spokesperson for the university, said in an email Wednesday that the institution “disputes the allegations” in Kennedy’s lawsuit. “Her claims are wholly meritless,” Kalb said. “We expect to vigorously defend the matter and prevail.”

Reached by phone Wednesday in Louisiana, Anarumo said that he was unaware of the lawsuit and surprised by the allegations.

“The only thing I could tell you in response is, I think I formed the most gender-diverse cabinet in the history of the school. And Liz Kennedy was my very first promotion into the cabinet,” Anarumo said. “I don’t understand the context of that complaint, I guess.” 

The lawsuit accuses several top Norwich administrators of engaging in inappropriate and retaliatory behavior.

But the most egregious allegations concern Anarumo. The former president “routinely made sexualized comments and engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior and innuendo in front of students, alumni, teachers, Ms. Kennedy, and other employees,” the lawsuit reads. 

“Specifically, President Anarumo would regularly recount his sexual exploits at fundraising events,” the lawsuit states. “During a trip to Georgia, Ms. Kennedy was present and witnessed him telling two young alumni that he had once had sex with” an international celebrity, a claim that Kennedy said he repeated “to audiences in various work settings.”

Anarumo also repeatedly got drunk at work events and fundraisers, the lawsuit claims, and allowed his underage son to drink at functions. Once, Kennedy alleges, she heard from staff members “who observed President Anarumo hold a female undergraduate student’s legs up at a Norwich fundraising event so that she could perform a ‘keg stand.’”

The lawsuit states that Kennedy, who started working at Norwich in 2011, repeatedly reported Anarumo’s behavior to her supervisor and to members of the board of trustees, but board members did not act until she told them in late 2023 that the president was allegedly misusing funds.

“Specifically, President Anarumo claimed to be using Norwich funds to travel to visit donors, but instead he was misappropriating them for his own purposes and not doing Norwich business on these junkets,” the suit reads.

Only then, the suit said, did board members act. 

Anarumo left the presidency in early January 2024, telling VTDigger in an interview at the time that the decision was mutual. He had served as president since June 2020.

At the time of his departure, however, board members had commissioned an independent investigation into Anarumo’s behavior. The focus of the investigation was not clear, but board members said the president “violated Norwich’s core guiding values and University policy.”

Anarumo said Wednesday the allegations outlined in the lawsuit had nothing to do with his departure from the school. 

That departure was “amicable and mutual, and it was because of emerging family challenges that I had,” he said. “That’s still my message, because that’s the truth.”

After Anarumo’s departure, Kennedy alleges, administrators sought multiple times to force her out, demoted her and cut her salary. All those actions, the lawsuit said, amounted to discrimination and retaliation. 

She was being unfairly punished, the suit claims, “whereas senior leadership covered for President Anarumo and looked the other way from his illegal and inappropriate behavior.” 

The lawsuit notes that Kennedy took medical leave earlier this year in response to Norwich’s conduct. It’s not clear from the complaint whether she remains on leave.

The lawsuit arrives the same week that Norwich trustees announced a new president: Lt. Gen. John Broadmeadow, a Norwich board member and fellow at the Institute for Defense & Business, an educational institution in North Carolina. 

Broadmeadow, a retired Marine, will be the first Norwich alumnus to serve as president in over 30 years, according to a press release announcing his appointment. 

“John Broadmeadow is the right person at the right time for Norwich,” Alan DeForest, the chair of the board, said in the press release. “His exceptional combination of personal connection to Norwich, his work as a Board of Trustees member, and lifetime of continued service to the University uniquely positions him to step into the leadership role as the 25th president of Norwich University.”

Trustees initially tapped Broadmeadow for the role in January, but his appointment was delayed amid health concerns. He will take office May 1, according to the school.