May 21, 2015 12:28 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

The office of Missouri State Sen. Paul LeVota (D-Independence) is under review for allegations of sexual harassment after a female college student left her internship there.

According to the Joplin Globe, the University of Central Missouri (UCMO) joined the Missouri Senate in seeking to determine why one of its students ended her internship so prematurely. The intern was assigned to LeVota's office, but he has not been confirmed as the subject of the investigation.

Unnamed sourced told the Columbia Daily Tribune the senator is involved in the investigation, but to what end is not known.

"There is an ongoing investigation," Senate Minority Leader Joe Keaveny (D-St. Louis) said in a statement. "I will tell you as the minority leader and being on the administration committee we take it very seriously. We want to be an equal opportunity employer and that includes the interns."

LeVota told the Tribune he had five interns from more than one local university, two of whom from UCMO. Both - one male and the other a female - left after a month-and-a-half when the school apparently notified the senator's office they were "needed... on other projects."

"I was never informed by the university, or by either intern, of any issues they experienced other than that," LeVota told the newspaper.

Around the same time LeVota's interns left his office, Missouri Southern State University (MSSU) retracted their own interns from the Capitol building. In that instance, the Kansas City Star obtained sexually suggestive text messages between House Speaker John Diehl and an intern. Diehl later admitted to it and resigned.

In a statement issued shortly after the Globe published its report Wednesday, LeVota acknowledged the incident regarding Diehl.

"Recently, the Missouri Capitol was buzzing about the Speaker of the House and his relationship with an intern," he said. "Recently, there have been unconfirmed rumors about the interns in the Missouri Senate program and other interns in the Missouri House. I understand the need for universities to look into rumors, even unsubstantiated rumors. I would be open to any university taking a further look at the experience of any of my legislative interns. I had the honor of working with five students from several universities across the state this spring."

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