U-M president seeks firing of professor facing sex charges

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Regents at the University of Michigan are expected to consider a recommendation from its president that the school fire an opera singer and tenured professor facing sexual assault charges.

Mark Schlissel wants David Daniels dismissed “immediately,” The Detroit News reported Monday.

He also doesn’t want Daniels to receive severance pay.

“I have determined that Prof. Daniels’ conduct is inconsistent with the character of tenure at the University of Michigan and therefore constitutes cause for dismissal,” Schlissel wrote in a letter to be considered by the regents who meet Thursday.

Daniels is on leave from the university amid accusations that he sexually assaulted a performer nearly a decade ago. He has denied that allegation.

In 2019, a grand jury in Houston indicted Daniels and his husband, William Scott Walters, on sexual assault charges for what prosecutors say was the rape of an incapacitated man in 2010.

A student at the Ann Arbor school filed a 2018 federal lawsuit alleging Daniels groped him, sent him sexual photos and videos, and requested sexual photos and videos of the student in return.

The student also alleges he was served alcohol, given sleep medication and touched sexually.

Daniels said in a statement in 2018 that those accusations “are both false and malicious,” and that he and the “individual mentioned” in the complaint never had a physical relationship.

The Associated Press