For the second time this year, a University of South Florida professor is under fire for sexual harassment allegations at a previous job.

  • Dr. Herbert Maschner not hired like other applicants, according to USF
  • Process did not include reference checks applied to other searches
  • Currently, Maschner still employed at USF

USF officials recently learned about sexual harassment allegations against Dr. Herbert Maschner while he was at Idaho State University. The woman who filed the allegations is also suing the school for how it handled the case.

The accuser alleges that Maschner touched her inappropriately, and that the school retaliated after she reported the incident.

Maschner currently serves as USF’s Director of CVAST, the Center for Virtualization and Applied Spatial Technologies. The position comes with a salary of $195,000 a year.

A USF spokesperson says the school was unaware of the past case because Maschner was not hired like traditional applicants. He was recruited based on merit and reputation.

“The process to hire Maschner did not include the same reference checks routinely applied to other searches at the time and now required by USF policy in all searches,” the spokesperson said via email.

Stricter reference checks are now required after Sam Bradley, the former Director of the Zimmerman School of Advertising and Mass Communications, was found to have been accused of sexual harassment by a student at his past school. USF fired Bradley after it said he misled the school during the hiring process.

RELATED: Controversial professor Samuel Bradley officially fired from USF

When reached via email, Maschner said he did not have a comment for us. However, in an email we obtained via a public records request, he did tell the director of his school, "I'm sorry this has come up."

Maschner is still employed by the university. The university reports it is not aware of any personnel issues with him since he was hired in 2015, but it is reviewing the facts from the case at his past school.