Former researcher under scrutiny

A former Indiana State University professor and researcher at the Kinsey Institute may have his psychologist license revoked for allegedly sexually harassing his research subjects.\nThis summer, four ISU students filed a complaint with the Indiana attorney general's office, alleging professor Jerome A. Cerny, 59, inappropriately touched their genitalia and made sexual comments during research. The complaints contain four counts of inappropriate conduct between September 1994 and June 2002. \nCerny will defend his license in front of the Indiana State Psychology Board at a hearing Nov. 21. \nThe Board suspended his license in an emergency session May 16. \nISU closed Cerny's lab in 1996 following two similar student accusations. From September 1998 to August 1999, Cerny went on sabbatical where he did research on psychophysiological processes of sexual behavior at the Kinsey Institute.\nJennifer Bass, spokesperson for Kinsey, said no one was aware of any past complaints against Cerny when he was accepted to the Institute. She said there were no complaints made during his time at the Kinsey Institute.\nMichael Morse, an ISU student from 1992 to 1997, discussed his contact with Cerny in 1996.\nMorse, a psychology major, said he was eager to be a research subject to add to his resume. He showed up at Cerny's lab, but was turned down because he didn't meet the criteria.\nIn 1997, Cerny allegedly approached Morse, then a senior, and asked if he was still interested in being a subject. Morse said it was typical of his style of recruitment. \nMost of the subjects were enrolled in his courses and were not paid. Instead, they received "massive amounts" of extra credit -- a half-hour in the laboratory in exchange for almost a grade higher in some cases, Morse said.\nMorse said he was told by Cerny, both verbally and in a written consent form, that his genitals would only be viewed once during the ejaculatory latency research. Morse said Cerny asked him to masturbate to a pornographic movie while he talked to him over an intercom. For almost three hours, Morse unsuccessfully tried to ejaculate wearing the plethysmograph. Cerny then told him to use his hand and then Morse ejaculated. Cerny then allegedly grabbed Morse's penis.\nDuring the procedure, Morse said Cerny touched his penis at least eight times during a two-day period, for "vague and ambiguous reasons."\nMorse said he felt uncomfortable, but didn't say anything at that moment.\n"I didn't even realize that anything was wrong until he tickled my sides at the water fountain outside of class," he said. "Then, I realized something terribly wrong went on."\nCerny did not wish to comment when called at his home Monday night.\nIn the complaints, the counts detail Cerny's relationship with ISU students, including accusations Cerny massaging, pinching and tickling. The complaints also claim Cerny suggested that he stay in the room with the subjects and watch them masturbate. In his lab, students also claim Cerny asked them to help him design a more ergonomic chair. One student agreed and took his pants off so Cerny could trace his legs, buttocks and testicles on paper.\nShelly Mazo, director of the Indiana State Psychology Board, said a board of seven members will vote on whether or not to revoke Cerny's license.\nBass said regardless of the outcome of Cerny's hearing, situations like these are always detrimental to the sexual research field.\n"Doing sex research is a very, very sensitive topic," she said. "We need to provide more protections for people involved, both researchers and subjects."\nBass said researchers should never touch a subject or be in the room when they are performing personal sexual acts. Most of all, she said subjects need to know what will actually occur in the study and their rights to privacy.\n"Most subjects don't know they can back out at any time," she said\nMorse said he felt the same way.\n"I was just in terror of him," he said. "I literally felt that I could not get out of there unless I finished the project. It had nothing to do with science." \nThe public hearing will begin at 9:15 p.m., Friday at the Indiana Government Center South, Room 1, in Indianapolis. \n-- Contact campus editor Adam Aasen at aaasen@indiana.edu.