University of Connecticut tenured history professor Ricardo Salazar-Rey was terminated on Oct. 20, following his third sexual harassment investigation.
Salazar-Rey was notified of his termination via letter on Oct. 20 by Amy Gorin, senior vice provost for Health Sciences and Interdisciplinary Initiatives. Salazar-Rey had been on administrative leave since April prior to his termination.
Students enrolled in Salazar-Rey’s courses were notified of his leave by Mark Healey, associate professor and department head of history, through HuskyCT.
The complaint was filed on April 15 by a student enrolled in Salazar-Rey’s freshman-level history course studying Latin America and the Caribbean.
The complaint said Salazar-Rey began texting messages, memes and videos to the student in February 2026. The series of text messages was received in a Freedom of Information request by The Daily Campus.
One of the messages included a screenshot of a YouTube video comment stating, “Just because she likes some bizzarro crap you do doesn’t mean she’s your soul mate,” followed by text messages, “Want it to be us? Or US?”
In another message between Salazar-Rey and the student, Salazar-Rey stated his desire for a relationship and young children. The student replied to the message, telling him that he “would be able to find that again.” Salazar-Rey replied to this message by stating, “Unless it’s you, I’m not sure that you can be sure.”
Salazar-Rey was placed on administrative leave on April 28, banned from campus and restricted from contacting students or faculty without authorization. He was issued a formal notice from Alison Cutler, a labor relations manager from UConn’s human resources department.
The investigation was initiated by Jamila Goolgar, associate director of the Office for Inclusion and Civil Rights (OICR) and former equal employment opportunity investigator from OIE. The OICR proceedings were overseen by Sarah Chipman, director of civil rights compliance and Title IX coordinator, who tracked the prior institutional history between Salazar-Rey and his students.
Salazar-Rey expressed his frustration with his previous administrative leave with the university on his personal Facebook page between 2025 and 2026.
He posted a photo on Aug. 27, 2025, of a “motivational shirt.” The shirt depicts the text “Per my last email,” with images of stick figures punching, kicking and attacking another figure.
The second complaint against Salazar-Rey was filed by a former undergraduate student in 2023. The complainant alleged that from February to August Salazar-Rey had pursued an amorous relationship and engaged in in sex-based and sexual harassment.
UConn’s Policy Against Discrimination, Harassment and Related Interpersonal Violence defines amorous relationships as “intimate, sexual and/or any other type of amorous encounter or relationship, whether casual or serious, short-term or long-term.”
Sexual harassment is defined in the policy as “discriminatory harassment that consists of unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature. This may include, but is not limited to, unwanted sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, inappropriate touching, acts of sexual violence or other unwanted conduct of a sexual nature, whether verbal, non- verbal, graphic, physical, written or otherwise.”
Salazar-Rey was notified of the investigation via letter on Sep. 26, 2023 by Chipman.
The complaint was filed on Sept. 7, 2023, by a student enrolled in a course taught by Salazar-Rey in the Spring 2023 semester.
The complainant said Salazar-Rey frequently complemented her appearance, writing skills and that he had purchased a LEGO flower set for her.
Salazar-Rey encouraged students to contact him via text message rather than email.
During the semester, the complainant met with Salazar-Rey during his office hours to discuss work for the class. In one of these meetings, both individuals shared personal information about their respective personal/sexual identities, as stated in the OIE findings report.
As the spring semester ended, Salazar-Rey approached the complainant, asking if they would be interested in working as a teaching assistant for one of his summer courses from May 31 to June 30, 2023.
The complainant accepted the position and began working with Salazar-Rey during the summer 2023 semester.
The professor sent the complainant $500 from his personal funds on July 9, 2023, to pay her for work during this time as she had yet to receive payment from the university. After receiving the payment from CoreCT, she returned the $500 back to Salazar-Rey on July 18, 2023.
Following this work with Salazar-Rey, the complainant withdrew from UConn and transferred to another university on matters unrelated to the allegations, according to the OIE report. The complainant continued to work with Salazar-Rey as arranged through the history department, as an outside/non-University affiliated contractor.
The two continued to message back and forth, including a series of photos and videos, one of which included a video sent by the complainant about trying to build a chair on Aug. 23, 2023. Salazar-Rey commented on the video stating that she needed to “seduce” a male student to assist. He then replied, “Why go seduce another [male] when I come pre-seduced and I’m ready to help.”
On Aug. 29, 2023, Salazar-Rey shared a photo with the complainant which showed a whiteboard and the complainant’s name written at the top.
The message was written in Spanish but was translated as saying, “I am falling in love with you. What I feel is wrong. It is probable that I am reading the signals wrong.”
The complainant then replied to the photo asking him [Salazar-Rey] if she misunderstood the writing on the whiteboard, to which he replied she did not.
She then expressed that she did not have any romantic attraction to him, strictly viewing him as a mentor, continuing to state that he had “betrayed [her] trust” and caused her “serious distrust,” as stated in the OIE findings report.
“Complainant stated that she viewed Respondent as a mentor and knew he was a father. She stated that she tried to ‘rationalize’ his behavior toward her by assuming his actions were intended as ‘fatherly’ or expressing ‘kindness,'” as stated by the complainant in their OIE interview.
The two have not communicated since this interaction.
“The evidence does not support that Respondent’s interactions with Complainant first demonstrated romantic intent only after Complainant’s status as an undergraduate student ended. But rather, prior to end Spring 2023 semester (while Complainant’s status was still as a University undergraduate student),” according to the fact and analysis section of the OIE case.