Yale Punishes Professor

Prestigious Honor Removed After Sexual Harassment Outcry

After an outcry from faculty, students and alumni, the dean of the Yale School of Medicine announced Friday that he had removed a prestigious honor from a leading researcher who had sexually harassed a junior colleague years earlier.

Medical school dean Robert Alpern wrote in an email that when the university this summer awarded an endowed chair to Michael Simons, a cardiologist and researcher, it was not intended to be a new honor, but a transfer after he lost a previous chair. That explanation rankled more than 1,000 faculty members, medical trainees, students and alumni, who signed a petition to Yale President Peter Salovey questioning the move and the overall culture at the medical school.

In an email to members of the Yale community on Friday, Alpern reversed that decision and said that effective immediately, he had removed Simons’ endowed chair.

“It has become clear that members of our community perceive the transfer of chairs as bestowing a new honor, and that this action is viewed as a statement about our values. I acknowledge the strength of the community’s perception, and I am extremely concerned about its impact on the community’s well-being,” Alpern wrote.

People who had been critical of how the Simons case was handled said it was the right outcome.

“There is a lot more work that needs to be done around sexual harassment and misconduct at Yale and elsewhere, but this experience shows us that our voices, our ‘collective’ voices, can and must be heard, and do bring about change,” Lynn Fiellin, an associate professor of medicine said in an email. “It is a two-way dialogue. Everyone’s voice should be heard.”

The decision to remove Simons’ chair, an endowed professorship that comes with an undisclosed amount of funding, follows a long-simmering controversy on campus that boiled over this summer. Five years ago, a Yale University committee concluded that Michael Simons, a cardiologist and leading researcher at its medical school, was guilty of sexually harassing a junior researcher. A petition signed by more than 1,000 faculty members, medical trainees, students and alumni landed in Yale President Peter Salovey’s mailbox last week, questioning why an endowed chair — a prestigious honor — was given to Simons this summer.