Petition created to remove IUPUI professor due to sexual misconduct

A petition has been created online asking for IUPUI to fire a professor accused of harassing and grooming female students.

The petition, which accuses Kinesiology professor CJ “Chico” Jensen of sexual misconduct,has gained over 2,700 signatures in the four weeks since it has been posted.

The petition goes into detail about some of the things that Jensen did or said in the classroom. According to the petition, Jensen said that some women “liked being treated like that” when referring to domestic violence and asked his female students “Have you found your g-spot?”

The petition also states that one of Jensen’s assignments allegedly requested students to select a picture that another person sees as their best photo based solely on physical appearance.

The petition highlights how despite bringing their issues to the department chair and the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, the students feel misled. 

"At first, the chair of the department, Mark Urtel, was going to co-teach with him.” The petition adds, “Instead, he (Jensen) has been reinstated along with the assignment asking for physically attractive students. This assignment is now extra credit.”

The petition was created by two students who had taken courses with Jensen in the past, Jacqueline Gantz and Chloe Lochard.

"At first he was my favorite professor. I think that’s what he wanted. He wanted his students to believe he was cool, loose, and intelligent in this field,” Gantz said. “Rather, he was grooming us to then accept his inappropriate words and behavior.”

 “He would ask us our sexualities,” Lochard said. “He would call the people of the LGBTQ+ community ‘Rainbows.’ He would single us out to ask questions based on our sexualities. He would make extremely sex negative comments about genitalia and the kink community.” 

Gantz encourages other students that may be experiencing something similar to seek group support.

“Do not feel like you must stand alone in these situations,” Gantz said. “I felt alone and felt like the world was against me. When I let others in who wanted to help and were affected by him as well, we became a united front. As easy as it is to feel like you must take things on by yourself, numbers make change. Whether that is change in yourself or change in the world, every bit matters.”

Kathy Johnson, the executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer was contacted about the situation.

“I am aware of this issue, and I assure you that as soon as we were made aware of the complaints the students had brought forth, we took steps to fully investigate the situation in collaboration with our Office of Equal Opportunity,” Johnson said. “IUPUI takes situations like these very seriously and we work very hard to ensure that we fully investigate any complaints brought by students.” 

Johnson added that all students in Jensen's class have been given the opportunity to move to a section with a different professor.

Jenson did not respond to requests for comment.