Updated

A world-renowned New York University professor was reportedly suspended for the upcoming school year after she was found to have sexually harassed a gay male student.

Avital Ronell, 66, who is a lesbian, was found to have made unwanted sexual advances and sent sexually charged emails to Nimrod Reitman, 34, according to a Title IX report obtained by The New York Times on Monday. Ronell, an expert in German and comparative literature, had denied the claims against her.

Reitman, who is married to a man, accused Ronell of kissing him and touching him repeatedly and sending him emails in which she called him, “Sweet cuddly Baby,” “my most adored one,” and “my astounding and beautiful Nimrod,” among other names.

“Our communications — which Reitman now claims constituted sexual harassment — were between two adults, a gay man and a queer woman, who share an Israeli heritage, as well as a penchant for florid and campy communications arising from our common academic backgrounds and sensibilities,” she said in a statement to The New York Times.

Reitman filed the Title IX complaint two years after graduating from NYU. He brought up allegations of sexual harassment, sexual assault, stalking and retaliation, but the university cleared her for every offense except sexual harassment, The Times reported. Reitman claimed Ronell would retaliate against him if he didn’t succumb to her alleged sexual pressure.

A group of scholars came out in defense of Ronell soon after the university made its decision to suspend her.

“Although we have no access to the confidential dossier, we have all worked for many years in close proximity to Professor Ronell,” the scholars wrote and posted on a philosophy blog. “We have all seen her relationship with students, and some of us know the individual who has waged this malicious campaign against her.”

Reitman, who’s now a visiting Harvard fellow, said he never meant to become a public figure