A group of San Jose State University seniors is urging the university officials to discipline kinesiology professor Jeffry Mathis, who confessed to a sexual encounter with one of his female student in his office.

The university has failed to take any action yet.

The professor claims the incident was consensual but the student alleges it was an assault.

"To find out they swept this under the rug it's insulting," said senior Sasha Bassett. "He violated two faculty guidelines. The first one is to provide a safe space for the student. The second one is not to harass or violate that safe space."

Bassett is one of the four students who are requesting a severe punishment for the professor.

"To me it shows the university was trying to hide it," said senior Herlinda Aguirre "They didn't want to deal with it or anything."

To garner more attention, the students created a website, 'Students for the Accountability of Jeffry Mathis' where in they have posted a letter to San Jose State officials including university president Mohammad Qayoumi; two university provosts, Ellen Junn and William Nance; and the chair of the kinesiology department, Shirley Reekie.

An excerpt of the letter:

"We are petitioning in regards to a recent report about a San Jose State faculty member accused to sexual assault by a female student. To ensure the safety and well-being of all students, in accordance with university policy, we demand the immediate removal of Jeffry Mathis from the SJSU faculty."

So far, the online petition features 600 signatures, which will be submitted to the university officials by the month end.

Earlier this month, the SJSU student approached the Investigative Unit and told them her version of the incident after she was upset and annoyed with the university's treatment on the issue.

Last August, the sexual assault victim scheduled a meeting in his office to discuss a grade in her previous semester, which was D+. When she asked Mathis the reasons for awarding such a low grade, he told her it was due to plagiarism issues.

"He looked at me and touched me and said, 'How do you want to better your grade?'" the student said. "He kept coming closer to me and my body just completely shut down. He continued to touch me and try to talk about the ways that I could better my grade."

The professor continued to engage in sexual abuse even after she told him to stop.

"Then he straddled me and sat on me," she said, "and put his hands up my shirt and under my sweater and was rubbing me. He blocked the stairs and said the only way I will let you leave is if I can grab your butt... But it has to be the way I want to grab it."

The student then approached the university police and filed an incident report immediately. Mathis was probed for false imprisonment and sexual battery. He rubbished these allegations and later no charges were laid against him.

After the incident occurred, the professor did send an e-mail to the student admitting his fault:

"I've been thinking about last night and I have come to the conclusion that I made a terrible mistake in how I handled that situation. I will change your grade to a B- for free, because it is the right way to handle this."

The Investigative Unit acquired a copy of the university's confidential investigation report, wherein Mathis accepted to kissing and touching the student sexually but claimed it to be consensual.

"Everything that professor said [in that report] was a lie," the young woman insisted. "He said I wanted to kiss him, that I wanted him. Everything was just a lie. He made it sound like I was the bad guy, and that wasn't the case at all."