<p>More information Available at <a href="http://www.yeshivavictims.org%5B/url%5D">www.yeshivavictims.org</a></p>
<p>In recent years there have been a rash of legitimate discrimination complaints at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. It disgusts us that this school continue to neglect the rights of students faculty and staff does so with philathropic resourses that should be going towards educating our nations care givers. It is a shame that Yeshiva University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine is being known as a pace where corrupt = corrupt administrators who abuse the system are protected at the expense of their innocent victims. </p>
<p>One particularly aggregious example is the story of Jeevan Padiyar:</p>
<pre><code> I entered Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Fall of 1999 after graduating cum laude from Kansas State University with dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemistry and Biochemistry and with numerous academic honors and out-of-class achievements. During my first two years at Einstein I earned several glowing faculty evaluations, developed a new student orientation program, and planed several class trips for the College. In 2001, I took step one of the USMLE and scored in the top 1% of students nationally.
After spending a year doing fellowship research on tuberculosis with Dr. William R. Jacobs, Jr, I decided to pursue a Ph.D. degree in addition to the M.D. Dr. Jacobs offered me a position in his lab. In early 2003 I applied for the prestigious Howard Hughes Fellowship and was one of 60 students in the conrtry to be fund through this program. In October of 2003, I co-authored a groundbreaking paper on TB vaccines which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Around this time is where things began to go wrong for me at Albert Einstein.
In August of 2003 I was assigned a roommate who was new to the school. I picked him up at the airport, and on the way back my sexual orientation came up. He told me he was uncomfortable living with a gay man, so I went to the housing office to request a swap. The Housing Department was categorically unsympathetic, so I naively wrote to the Dean of the College, Dominick Purpura, revealing my sexual orientation to the administration for the first time. The roommate change was allowed shortly thereafter, but I was called to a meeting three months later with Dr. James David who is the Associate Dean for Students at Einstein. He told me I was a "difficult person" who should move out of my residense to "stop raising red flags." He indicated that Einstein had "80 lawyers with nothing to do" if I wanted to make an issue out of the situation. Despite this threatening tone, I turned down his offer to move.
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<p>From that threat, things only got worse.</p>
<pre><code> In January, 2004, in a meeting with Dr. Jacobs, my research supervisor, and Dr. David, the Dean for Students, I was accused of stealing my own computer equipment (which I had purchased with personal funds) and of submitting false expense reports. Both of these allegations were simple discrepancies and, once explained, seemed to no longer be issues.
During the next several months Dr. Jacobs called me into his office twice more to say "I was not producing" despite my published paper and presitigious Howard Hughes grant funding. But when I disagreed, once again, the matter was dropped. In fact, just weeks later, Dr. Jacobs wrote me a very favorable recommendation for my continuance as a funded Howard Hughes Fellow.
Nevertheless, less than one month later, I discovered that Dr Jacobs given a failing grade for the Fall 2003 semester, even though I had published a paper in a prestigious journal, obtained grant support for my project, and started developing another research project entirely on my own. In issuing the failing grade Dr. Jacobs did not follow Einstein's procedures for such instances, failing to both inform me directly and meet with me to discuss it.
On May 3rd 2004, I received a letter from Dr. David and Dr. Todd Evans, Director of the Graduate School, indicating that I was suspended from all lab activities. No reason was given. At a meeting later that day I was told that the suspension resulted from a hostile email sent to a member of the Jacobs lab. The email was not addressed to anyone in particular, was not signed, and was sent from a public computer terminal on campus using an anonymous Hotmail account. I did not send the email, and I can account for my whereabouts when the message was sent, which I have done since then.
Fifteen months later my suspension continued without any hearing whatsoever. My requests to be notified of specific charges, or to see the evidence upon which the College based its decision, were ignored. This was despite the clear procedure in Einstein's bylaws for addressing allegations of misconduct, including notice of charges and procedures to be followed, the right to an advocate, prompt review of the allegations, right to review evidence, and the right to present one's case and defenses.
In late August I received notice that HHMI had decided to award me a one-time renewal of funding for my research, an offer of $90-120,000 made only to 14 of the 60 fellows. HHMI was holding the award pending institutional endorsement from Einstein, which it had withdrawn shortly after my suspension. Despite several letters from myself and HHMI requesting the endorsement, the College refused and my funding expired.
From September 2004 to February 2005, I also began to receive harassing emails that included anti-gay epithets and threats to my safety. The last indicating:
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<p>useless faggot,
can you hear a joke? what is the favorite type of faggot....a dead one! ha! it is funny isnt it?
you are a useless person....my strong friends says you are still here. If you dont leave this place in two weeks you will be a dead one</p>
<p>The messages stopped only after Einstein changed my email address, one full month after I made the request. Worse yet, they accused me of sending this threats to myself without any investigation into the matter.</p>
<pre><code> Beginning in February 2005, my attorneys wrote several letters to the associate and general counsel of Einstein and Yeshiva Universit to no avail.
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<p>Keep in my I had never been specifically charged with anything and Einstein continued to let me live in student housing and draw a salary. </p>
<p>Finally, in June of 2005, my attorneys met with attorneys for Yeshiva, who proposed that all would be forgotten if I voluntarily withdrew. However, they would offer me only a summary exit letter. Leaving a medical school on such terms would effectively end my career. </p>
<p>In September of 2005, after 18 months and the insistence of the courts, I was finally given an opportunity to defend myself at a campus hearing. Despite NOT being allowed to have attorneys present and facing an inquiry board of 40 faculty members, I was able to disprove every single charge. </p>
<p>In spite of my apparent success in front of what amounted to an academic kangaroo court, one month later I was dismissed.graduate program, on the grounds that a) My prior mentor, Dr. William Jacobs, Jr, no longer wanted me in his lab because of my "unsatisfactory performance" and b) "no suitable labs could be found" from a lengthy list that I submitted to the School of potential researchers with whom I could conduct my experiments. The medical school followed with the same decision as the PhD program citing the allegations which the graduate school seemed to dismiss.</p>
<p>The only conclusion that we are able to come to --the ONLY thing that makes sense --is that Einstein and Yeshiva--who have a history of anit-gay bias (see levin v. yeshiva)-- di not have sufficient basis to follow their own procedures to get rid of me, for WHATEVER reason that was. Thus their tactic was to make my life so uncomfortable that I chose to leave of my own accord. Because I was not and am notwilling to give up my medical career for what amounts to homophobia and bigotry, I sought assistance from the Supreme Court of the State of New York. </p>
<pre><code> Just when we thought things couldn't get any stranger, in December of 2005 the story took another turn. On Christmas Eve I received a signed confidential memo written by James David to my then chief supporter on Sept 15th 2004. The memo states in no uncertain terms:
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<p>"Dean Purpura continues to remain concerned about your support of an openly gay student. Irrespective of the actual events involving Mr. Padiyar, our donors cannot accept publicity from students of this "type"...It would best be served, if you were to follow Bill Jacobs' lead and distance yourself from all matters pertaining to Mr. Padiyar."</p>
<p>J David MD
Associate Dean for Students
Albert Einstein College of Medicine</p>
<pre><code> A few months later we received a copy of a second misconduct policy which affords students significantly more due process and which applied to my case but was deliberately concealed from me and 2 other students during our disciplinary processes. After denying its existence and then admitting to its validity, Einstein and Yeshiva tried to make the argument that it did not apply beacause it was mistakenly included in the last 5 years of published guidelines bya a "simple error of Yeshiva's Secretaries."
Based on these two documents we have returned to court requesting that any ruling include our newly discovered evidence.
Despite the involvement of attorneys, the courts, and the support of several prominent community leaders, Yeshiva continues to show its bias to gay and lesbian students who are judged not on academic performance but on how they express their identity.
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<p>More info at <a href="http://www.yeshivavictims.org%5B/url%5D">www.yeshivavictims.org</a></p>