Campus Watch

In a case challenging an alleged a pattern of gender bias, a former administrator at Yale Medical School is suing the university for employment discrimination based on sex and age, retaliation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The woman, Ann P. Diamond, alleges she was passed over for a promotion because of her age and sex. She also alleges she was fired after she complained to civil rights authorities.

According to a Yale Medical School survey, harassment may be a problem throughout the professional school. Only 62 of the 270 surveys distributed were completed, but 19 percent of responding students said they had face gender discrimination.

Diamond's attorney, the prominent trial lawyer John R. williams, told The Yale Daily News that "Yale would not be smart" to let the case go to trial.

Diamond's case is part of a pattern at Yale, Williams told The Daily News. He said the university often replaces middle-aged women in its administrative ranks with "make graduates of third rate business school."

"This case will challenge what Yale is doing" is the administrative ranks, Williams told The Daily News. "it's pretty clear to me the problem is an institutional problem of ancient lineage."

Diamond is seeking reinstatement in an administrative job at the level she feels she would hold if the university has no discriminated against her. She is also suing for more than $15,000 damages for each of the three counts of her complaints.

According the complaint Diamond filed in New Haven, Corn. Superior Court in January, the problem began with a 1991 downgrading of her job and that of a younger male colleague.

Both appealed the downgrades, according to the complaint, but the less experienced male employee's appeal was sustained and Diamond's was not.

According to an article in The Yale Daily News, the lower rank froze Diamond's pay.

In March 1992, Diamond's complaint says, her problems continued when a "younger, less experienced and less qualified" man was promoted to a position she too had south.

The man, Joseph Angeletti, became senior development officer, according to The Yale Daily News, According to The Daily News, Diamond said Angeletti was ranked lower than she before the 1991 reclassification.

According to Diamond's complaint, Angeletti received his promotion only four months after he applied for it. "No female employee of [Yale] has ever received a comparable promotion so soon after having requested it," the complaint says.

A few months after Angeletti was promoted over her head, Diamond filed complaints with the Yale Department of Human Resources and the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights.

According to The Daily News, on October 16, Angeletti dismissed Diamond from her job after the commission on human rights gave her the right to sue. Yale was informed of the commission's decision, Diamond told The Daily News.

Angeletti has refused comment on the firing calling it a "personnel matter."

Diamond said in a letter to the Crimson that her difficulties reflect larger problems at Yale.

"Not enough is being done to correct the widespread practices and traditions of sexism, sexual and gender harassment at Yale," the letter says.

Diamond's lawsuit has been covered by several major Connecticut newspapers and on National public Radio.