Yale has suspended a tenured professor for violating the university’s sexual misconduct policies, the Yale Daily News reports.
John Coleman Darnell, a prominent Egyptologist and director of the Yale Egyptological Institute, resigned as chair of the department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and agreed to a one-year suspension from the faculty “after engaging in several violations of university policy, including maintaining an intimate relationship with a student under his direct supervision,” the News reports, citing a January 8 e-mail from Darnell to the department.
“Darnell’s other violations consisted of participating in the review of a faculty member with whom he had an intimate relationship and using his leadership role in Egyptology to cover up his illicit behavior,” the News continues.
It’s not clear whether Darnell's violations involved two different people, or whether the student was a PhD candidate who later became the faculty member in question. Under Yale’s rules, faculty may not have sexual relationships with any undergraduates. Faculty-grad student relationships are banned whenever “a teacher is or in the future might reasonably become responsible for teaching, advising, or directly supervising a student.”
“[I] have violated Yale policies and the trust placed in me as a Yale faculty member,” Darnell wrote, according to the Daily News. “I have failed the university, my colleagues, and my students, and I am deeply sorry.”
University spokesman Tom Conroy declined to comment to the News.
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What about all of the Title IX implications here? How many students were denied equal access to their education while this relationship continued?
I hope that anyone with information about this would email not only Ms. Bass, but also the two reporters covering this for the Yale Daily News (which is apparently interested in following up on various aspects of the situation).
Who would pay nearly $9,000 to go to Egypt and Jordan under the direction of Colleen Manassa? The woman only did a 4-year Ph.D. program, she's not an "expert" at all. If you want to go on this tour, buy a $20 traveller's guide and organize the trip yourself. It will be a lot more exciting for you and will probably cost you a 1/3 of Manassa's price. I have been to Egypt and Jordan alone without any problems. These places are much safer than walking through many large American cities.
http://www.yaleedtravel.org/programs/10083
For more info and a better article see:
http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2013/01/14/darnell-suspended-following-affair-with-fellow-professor-former-student/
As my colleague Mark Branch posted previously, we are committed to reporting fairly and objectively on this matter.
Anyone who can help by providing factual information, on the record, is welcome to get in touch with me: carole.bass@yale.edu.
— The Editors
Any alums still interested in the Yale-sponsored tour to Egypt next winter? Only $8950!
http://www.yaleedtravel.org/programs/10083
The deleted comments contained no "ad hominem attacks" and could be verified very easily but obviously the so-called "Editors" prefer to hide the truth.
Since when is one year's leave from teaching a punishment? They should have doubled his teaching load. That would have been a punishment.
The picture of Darnell has been changed, and we now have a bland portrait instead of a view of the man in action....
For more information, check out the following website where the editors don't try to cover the truth and where free speech is allowed:
http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2013/01/10/darnell-resigns-as-dept-chair-following-relationship-with-student/
Thank you for your comments and your concern about our coverage of this story. We are committed to reporting objectively about events at Yale, especially controversial ones, and we will follow up on this story if and when more facts become available. Comments that violate our terms and conditions (http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/terms-conditions), including those with ad hominem attacks and those with allegations or assertions about this case that we have not been able to confirm, will be deleted, and we ask you to refrain from posting them.
—The Editors
Still confused about what's wrong with those original comments.....
Hopefully all of this will lead to a broader investigation into the Yale Egyptology program, its finances, and the faculty's appalling treatment of graduate students.
The 2008 sexual harassment case was in Darnell's department, but not connected to him.
http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2008/05/01/sexual-harassment-case-details-emerge/
To that point, here is the Yale Alumni Magazine's editorial mission statement: "Our editorial independence allows us to put our readers first. Some alumni magazines are constrained to publish only the good news, or only talking points. Yale, to its credit, believes the alumni deserve lux et veritas in their magazine."
The role of the Yale alumni magazine should be to give Yale graduates a connection to what is happening on campus. This is an important story that brings into question the Yale administration's own integrity and the integrity of a department chair and a professor in that department. The story needs to be pursued, even if it doesn't make our university look good in the short term. Having all the relevant facts and allowing for free discussion of this incident is obviously essential.
Maybe it was comments like "I'll never give another penny to Yale because of this" that scared the alumni magazine. There is still plenty of good discussion and rightful outraged at how little Yale has gone against the perpetrators: http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2013/01/10/darnell-resigns-as-dept-chair-following-relationship-with-student/
why not just take away the comment function? discussion doesnt seem to be welcomed here.
It is Egyptian style media control
All previous comments have now been deleted. What kind of comments on this story will be tolerated?