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n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m J a n u a r y / F e b r u a r y 2 0 1 9 | n e w h a v e n B I Z 19 Local Business. Local Bank. Some relationships are just better. Call Paul Portnoy (203) 785-9148 milfordbank.com Member FDIC Ya l e M e d i c a l S c h o o l 'I was totally appalled and told them I wanted them to do something about it.' - Nancy Berliner a public war against a series of punishments meted out by the uni- versity's administration. He filed a lawsuit on Sept. 21, 2018, alleging breach of contract and trying to stop the university from stripping him of an endowed professorship. e Simons case has sparked a searching examination of the cli- mate for women in the Yale School of Medicine — and a backlash that has resulted in retaliation and recriminations that may cost the school's top administrator his job. According to faculty members speaking on the record and on background, the climate for wom- en at the Medical School remains chilly, with a slight warming trend. Articles push university to act When the University-Wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct (UWC) found Simons guilty of sexual harassment in 2013, the consequences were at first muted. Since his arrival at Yale from Dartmouth in 2008, Simons had been appointed to the concurrent posts of chief of cardiology at Yale School of Medicine, chief of car- diovascular medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital and director of the Yale Cardiovascular Research Center. He also held the Robert B. Berliner endowed professorship, an honor named for a former Medical School dean that recog- nized Simons' achievements in cardiology. In the wake of the harassment finding, the disciplinary commit- tee recommended that Simons be suspended from his post of cardi- ology chief at the Medical School for five years. When Simons appealed, the suspension was reduced to 18 months. According to Simons's legal complaint, "no other sanction was imposed." But then the New York Times got wind of the case and published a blockbuster exposé on Nov. 1, 2014. "A sexual harassment case that has been unfolding without public notice for nearly five years within the Yale School of Medicine has roiled the institution and led to new allegations that the univer- sity is insensitive to instances of harassment against women," reads the story, which was based on internal documents leaked to the newspaper. Discontent in the ranks e article sparked outrage among a subset of faculty members and researchers at the Medical School. A week before article's publication, however, the universi- ty took action aer being contact- ed by the Times, announcing that Simons would step down as chief of cardiology. A second Times story on Nov. 14, 2014, announced that Simons had been removed from his post as director of the Cardiovascular Research Center. While never exactly contrite, Simons accepted the sanctions and continued his work at Yale. en Nancy Berliner, daughter of the former Medical School dean whose name was on Simons' endowed chair, contacted Yale in the sum- mer of 2018 to express her family's dismay. "I was totally appalled and told them I wanted them to do something about it, and so did my mother," Berliner told the Wash- ington Post. Yale engineered a swap in June 2018, giving the Berliner chair to another researcher and naming Simons the new Waldemar von Zedtwitz professor of cardiology. When news of Simons' new post was disclosed in August, faculty activists were enraged once again, charged that the university had re- warded Simons for his misconduct. Yale responded with a rare Continued on next page The disgraced Simons is now waging a public war against a series of punishments meted out by the Yale administration. He filed a lawsuit in September alleging breach of contract. "university statement" to the entire community, declaring on Sept. 6, 2018, that the swap of the endowed chairs was not meant to confer new distinctions on Simons. "In making this transfer, the University had no intention to confer a new honor on Dr. Simons," the statement read. Unfortunately for Yale, Simons would submit as as an attachment in his lawsuit a letter that seemed to contradict the university statement. "Endowed chairs are awarded to those whose scholar-

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