Key points
- New ASU professor Dietram Scheufele violated the University of Wisconsin-Madison's policy on consensual relationships.
- Scheufele also broke UW-Madison's faculty rights and responsibilities policy.
- He started work as a Foundations Professor at ASU this semester.
Content warning: This article contains mentions of sexual harassment and other sensitive issues. For additional resources, contact the national sexual assault hotline at 800-656-4673 or visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network's website.
This semester, ASU hired a former University of Wisconsin-Madison professor, who resigned from his previous role after an investigation into three female students' complaints. The investigation found that he violated the university's consensual relationship policy and other rules.
The complaints concerned allegations of sexual harassment, intimidation and hostile behavior by professor Dietram Scheufele, according to public records obtained by The State Press.
UW-Madison's Office of Compliance conducted the investigation, which ended in September 2025. In addition to the relationship policy violations, investigators found several actions and behaviors that supported additional policy violations, the records stated.
The records included allegations that Scheufele had sexual relationships with two students and engaged in unwelcome sexual conduct with one of the complainants at a work conference.
Scheufele did not respond to several requests for comment from The State Press, but in a written statement to the Wisconsin State Journal contested the university's findings.
"I have consistently disputed the Office of Compliance's conclusions regarding UW's Consensual Relationships Policy and Faculty Conduct Rules and have submitted substantial evidence challenging its initial reports," he wrote. "Even though the disputed issues were resolved without any admission of wrongdoing by either party, I was fully prepared to have all allegations vetted in subsequent live hearings if necessary."
Scheufele started working at UW-Madison in 2004 and resigned Aug. 15 from his position as a professor in the Department of Life Sciences Communication. The records stated that, in addition to resigning, Scheufele agreed to not pursue employment at UW-Madison in the future.
In Fall 2026, Scheufele started working for ASU as a Foundation Professor of Communications and will instruct a B session iCourse called Science, Media and Society.
Professors can be named as a Foundation Professor by the University's president and provost to honor "outstanding faculty," according to a 2016 ASU News article.
In a written statement, a University spokesperson confirmed that Scheufele works at ASU and said the University conducts background checks as part of its hiring and onboarding process.
The State Press confirmed that ASU received a notice from UW-Madison in July sharing that Scheufele violated the university's consensual relationship policy.
This letter is an example of the reference letter sent by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and was obtained by The State Press on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026.
Findings from the investigation
The investigation referred to many of the complainants' experiences with Scheufele in assessing the accusations against him.
These actions and behaviors included making private, derogatory comments to students; insulting and publicly berating colleagues; using drugs in the presence of university witnesses in his home and in a social setting; having an "overly familiar, informal relationship" with a witness; making offensive and sexualized comments and evasively representing his relationships to the Office of Compliance in a "blatantly untruthful" way, the records stated.
The three women who had filed the complaints were Scheufele's students, according to the Cap Times.
READ MORE FROM THE CAP TIMES: UW-Madison students, records detail investigation of professor
A case of unwelcome sexual conduct was among the instances the records cited. According to one of the complainants, she and Scheufele shared an Uber after dinner following a work conference. In the Uber, Scheufele "tried to be handsy" with her and told her to stay with him at the hotel where they were both staying, according to the records.
In the elevator at the hotel, the complainant said Scheufele urged her to return to his hotel room, according to the records. She brushed off the offer, but "Scheufele had his arm around her and was gently pushing her out of the elevator and shuffling her down his hallway toward his room," the records said.
According to the records, outside of his door, Scheufele told her he would not make her do anything and would "behave," despite her continuously saying no. He seemed to ignore her refusals, so "she broke away from him and ran down the hall and took an elevator down to the front desk," the records stated.
In another instance cited by the investigation, one of the women had a hard time getting Scheufele to meet with her because he would not respond to her emails.
Eventually, Scheufele responded that he would not meet with her but told her to bring her ideas to discuss at a group meeting, according to the records. After presenting her ideas, he immediately began criticizing her work and her as a person, the records stated.
The woman said he spoke for 15 minutes uninterrupted and called her "lazy and said she would never get a job," the records stated. The records also stated that the complainant alleged Scheufele treated her differently from others in the course setting and gave preferential treatment to one of the students with whom he had a sexual relationship.
Scheufele also mocked the concept of a traditional housewife, often using the German phrase "Kinder, küche, kirche," or simply "KKK," in text messages, the records stated. The phrase translates to "Kids, kitchen, church."
According to the records, other comments by Scheufele were about female students' appearance and intelligence. The records also stated that he sent text messages that included sarcasm about older women, pregnant women, postpartum women and married women.
Scheufele also made offensive comments to one of the women, calling another student in the program a "pregnant idiot" or "fat idiot."
Policy violations and Title IX allegations
UW-Madison officials received the complaints in October 2024, according to the records.
The accusations were then taken to UW-Madison's Office of Compliance, which looked into potential violations of Title IX, a federal law banning sex-based discrimination in universities, and faculty policies, a UW-Madison spokesperson said in a written statement.
The completed investigative report did not find violations of university policies on sexual harassment and hostile behavior but found Scheufele broke the university's consensual relationship policy and a faculty rule requiring professional honesty and integrity.
Scheufele was issued an Intent to Discipline notice for the non-Title IX violations, which would lead to a non-Title IX disciplinary hearing. Officials also scheduled a Title IX fact-finding hearing, according to the spokesperson.
"The formal Title IX misconduct charges were scheduled for hearing on Feb. 21 and 22, 2026, as required by policy," the spokesperson wrote. "However, both Scheufele and the complainants waived their rights to the planned hearing, thereby ending the university's Title IX process."
In January 2026, the non-Title IX allegations were resolved with a settlement agreement between UW-Madison and Scheufele. The spokesperson said the agreement resulted in the university not issuing a final disciplinary decision regarding the non-Title IX allegations and Scheufele's resignation from the university, effective Aug. 15.
The settlement also required that Scheufele have no classroom instructional duties at UW-Madison in Spring and Summer 2026 and have limited contact with students during the timeframe of his resignation.
"UW-Madison takes all allegations of sexual harassment and faculty misconduct seriously," the spokesperson stated.
This document shows communication between the University of Wisconsin-Madison administration and Scheufele. It was obtained by The State Press on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026.
ASU hires Scheufele
According to Scheufele's website, he served more than 25 years on faculty at Cornell University and UW-Madison.
In a statement to the Wisconsin State Journal, Scheufele said he plans to continue the "teaching, mentoring, and research that has defined (his) entire academic career" after leaving UW-Madison.
An ASU spokesperson could not confirm whether the University's hiring committee read the full investigative report before hiring Scheufele.
Edited by Carsten Oyer, Emilio Alvarado, Kate Gore and Alan Deutschendorf III.
Reach the reporter at sjames51@asu.edu and follow @sennajames_ on X.
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Senna James is the digital editor-in-chief of The State Press. She currently works as a digital reporter for Cronkite News. She has previously worked as an intern at AZ Big Media and a public relations specialist at the Cronkite Agency. She is in her 7th semester with The State Press working previously as a managing editor and the community and culture editor.
