Tenured professors Todd Heatherton, William Kelley, and Paul Whalen treated women as sex objects, the lawsuit from seven women claims.
Plaintiffs were instead sexually harassed and sexually assaulted by the Department's tenured professors and expected to tolerate increasing levels of sexual predation," the lawsuit states.
As many as 40 current and former female students may be eligible to join the class-action suit, plaintiffs' attorneys told CNN.
"Sexual misconduct and harassment have no place at Dartmouth," the school said in a statement to CNN.
"While at Dartmouth, Professor Heatherton did his best to support and promote the careers of all graduate students.".
The plaintiffs claim Dartmouth knew about the professors' behavior for more than 16 years and did nothing.
The plaintiffs were mostly graduate students in a department known for its strong reputation and its professors' credentials, the suit states. »