Grand River Solutions issued a report Thursday finding that the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system systematically failed to support impacted parties, lacked clear processes for addressing sexual harassment complaints and allowed private information to leak in its handling of Interim Chancellor John Maduko, who resigned in late April in response to a sexual harassment complaint against him.
Report finds CSCU systemic failures in Maduko harassment case
Grand River Solutions issued a report Thursday finding that the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system systematically failed to support impacted parties, lacked clear processes for addressing sexual harassment complaints and allowed private information to leak in its handling of Interim Chancellor John Maduko, who resigned in late April in response to a sexual harassment complaint against him.
CSCU retained Grand River Solutions in June to conduct an independent review into its handling of Maduko's case, according to the report.
The report states that evidence surfaced in October 2022 that Maduko may have behaved inappropriately toward women at two of the state's community colleges. It found that systemic failures meant those concerns may not have reached the full Board of Regents and failed to prevent Maduko's appointment as interim chancellor in 2025.
The report says that in May 2024, Maduko began sending inappropriate sexual messages to a woman identified as Impacted Party 1. It says she told CSCU General Counsel Karen Buffkin in June 2025 that the board should not appoint Maduko, but that information was not passed along. Buffkin, who has been placed on paid administrative leave, told Grand River Solutions she did not recall Impacted Party 1's comments, according to the report.
On Apr. 13, 2026, Maduko sent several text messages soliciting Impacted Party 1 to "participate in or observe him engaging in a sexual act," according to the report. She then approached Buffkin with evidence of Maduko's conduct, setting an investigation in motion, the report states. No measures were immediately put in place to protect or support Impacted Party 1, and the next day she had to speak with Maduko for an hour, during which he continued making sexual comments, according to the report.
Maduko submitted his resignation on April 24. On April 29, CSCU Title XI Coordinator Alphonso Atkins announced he was dismissing the complaint because Maduko's resignation was "the highest-level sanction available" CSCU could have enacted, according to the report. The report's authors criticized the dismissal, writing that dismissing Title XI complaints because someone leaves the system "prevents the institution from fully addressing its obligations under Title IX to prevent future harm resulting from the same or similar circumstances, and provide appropriate remedy to the complainant."
The report also identified confusion, or poor communication, around who had authority to investigate Maduko. It states that under state law, agency heads must be investigated by Connecticut's Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, not the agency itself, but that the Title XI coordinator never told this to the impacted parties or offered to assist them in that process. Instead, the impacted parties "were left with the belief that the CSCU system dismissed or would dismiss their allegations against the Chancellor simply because the Chancellor was no longer employed by CSCU," according to the report.
The report includes recommendations for remedies for the women impacted by Maduko's alleged conduct and for changes to a range of CSCU policies and procedures. Investigations relating to the report's findings are ongoing.
The report also states that one woman left CSCU in 2025 after alleged harassment from Maduko and that another had her contract nonrenewed after a high-level administrator allegedly showed Maduko a complaint she had filed against him. The nonrenewal has since been reversed, according to the report.
Both interim chancellor Natalie Braswell and interim Board of Regents Chair Ari Santiago assumed their roles as a direct result of the scandal involving Maduko.
- The source does not state the exact date the report was issued, saying only that it was Thursday.
- The source does not state whether John Maduko responded to the report's findings; it says he could not be reached for comment.
- The source does not state the year Maduko resigned, saying only late April.
- The source does not identify or provide comment from the Board of Regents Chair and Vice Chair referenced in the Democratic lawmakers' statement.
- The source does not state the status or expected completion date of the ongoing investigations relating to the report's findings.
- The source uses both "Title XI" and "Title IX" when referring to the coordinator and complaints.
- The source does not provide direct comment from Impacted Party 1 or the other woman named in the report.
- The source does not state what reforms CSCU plans or when they will be implemented.
Read the original at CT Mirror