More than 1,000 faculty members, medical trainees, students and alumni submitted a petition to Yale University's president Sept. 13 questioning the institution's decision to award a leading cardiologist a leadership position despite his having been found guilty of sexually harassing a junior researcher five years ago, The Washington Post reports.
Here are five things to know:
1. In 2013, a universitywide committee found cardiologist and researcher Michael Simons, MD, guilty of sexually harassing a junior colleague. As a result, Dr. Simons stepped down from his position as chief of cardiology at the New Haven, Conn.-based Yale School of Medicine, and was suspended from holding a leadership position at the institution for five years — a sanction that was later reduced to 18 months.
2. Before the incident, Dr. Simons was awarded the Robert W. Berliner Professorship of Medicine, a prestigious endowed chair position at the medical school. After the committee's 2013 decision, Dr. Simons remained in the position. Family members of Robert Berliner, MD — for whom the endowed chair position was named — made it clear to the university earlier this year they did not feel the position was appropriate for Dr. Simons to hold, according to the report.
3. The Berliner professorship was reportedly given to another cardiologist in the department in August, The Washington Post reports. However, Dr. Simons revealed he had been named to a different endowed chair position in an since-deleted Aug. 1 tweet of a Yale news release, which has also since been taken down by the university. Endowed chair positions typically come with $130,000 in funding commonly used for salary or research, the report states.
4. A Yale spokesperson told The Washington Post the university agrees with many of the arguments raised regarding the new endowed professorship status bestowed on Dr. Simons. However, the spokesperson said, "in making this transfer, the university had no intention to confer a new honor on Dr. Simons."
5. Some critics said they believe Yale's reasoning that the second endowed professorship position bestowed to Dr. Simons represented a transfer and not a new chair is a hollow excuse.
"What is the motivation to accommodate this man to such great lengths that it gets the entire Yale community in an uproar. [The endowed professorship is] an extreme honor, and [Dr. Simons] doesn't deserve something honorable in this context," Lynn Fiellin, MD, a general medicine professor at the Yale School of Medicine, told the publication.
To access the full report, click here.