Four days after announcing that she would likely name students in a potential civil lawsuit against the College, Priya Venkatesan '90, a former Writing 5 lecturer and research associate at Dartmouth Medical School, told The Dartmouth Tuesday in a statement that she would likely not pursue legal action at this time. Venkatesan later retracted the statement in a phone call to The Dartmouth.
In an April 25 e-mail, Venkatesan told students she had taught that she might name some of them in a lawsuit . She subsequently told The Dartmouth that she may name some students and faculty in a possible legal suit against the College, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and DMS. Venkatesan then told The Dartmouth, in a statement she later retracted, that she did not believe a lawsuit would be "productive at this time" because it could hurt her family, although she maintained that her civil rights had been violated during her time at Dartmouth.
She also said in the retracted statement that she did not want her standing in the community where she currently works and resides to be affected. She later confirmed, in a second statement, that she is currently employed by Northwestern University. Venkatesan had previously refused to name the "large research university" at which she now works. Venkatesan requested that no member of the Dartmouth community, any other individuals mentioned in her list of grievances or the media have any contact with Northwestern. Venkatesan will try not to communicate with any member of the Dartmouth community or other people she may name in her suit, she said.
Alan Cubbage, vice president of university relations at Northwestern, said Wednesday that the school had no comment on Venkatesan's possible suit.
In an e-mail response to requests for comment about Venkatesan's statement that she would likely not pursue legal action, Dartmouth General Counsel Robert Donin repeated a statement he made to The Dartmouth Sunday.
"It has come to our attention that a former faculty member has e-mailed some undergraduates and faculty members mentioning the possibility of legal action," Donin said in the e-mail, sent Tuesday through the Office of Public Affairs. "We have determined that there is no basis for such action, and we have advised the students and faculty members of this."
The OPA responded to the same request for comment by stating that Venkatesan worked for Dartmouth from July 2005 to March 2008 and is no longer employed by the College.
Venkatesan said in her retracted statement that she will continue efforts to publish the book she is writing about her experiences in higher education, including those at Dartmouth, even if she decides not to pursue legal action. If any member of the Dartmouth community decides to sue Venkatesan, she added, she will defend herself in court and include her list of grievances.
One student in Venkatesan's Writing 5 class interviewed by The Dartmouth was never worried about the suit, he said, in response to Venkatesan's retracted statement that she would likely not pursue legal action. The student, who said he believed he would never have been named in the lawsuit, added that Venkatesan's lawsuit against the College had "no legitimate basis."
"If Venkatesan followed through with her lawsuit the same way she followed through with grading our papers, no one would have had anything to worry about," the student said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth.
Two students in Venkatesan's Writing 5 class described her as an unfair grader who did not accept students' opinions contrary to her own. According to one student, Venkatesan once cancelled class for a week without notifying students beforehand. Students learned of the cancellation through a third party that morning, the student said. Venkatesan had earlier said that a student's "diatribe" about the impropriety of challenging patriarchal norms earned applause from other members of the class and caused her "intellectual and emotional distress," leading her to cancel class.
"On the whole, Ms. Venkatesan made what could have been an interesting class a nightmare," the student said in an e-mail.
Venkatesan's potential lawsuit against Dartmouth would likely name at least seven students in her Writing 5 classes, chair of the writing program Tom Cormen and DMS professor Christopher Lowrey, Venkatesan said in a previous interview. Venkatesan contended in the interview that she had experienced "harassment" and "discrimination" that may have violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which protects against employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin. Venkatesan contacted a lawyer on Friday, she said in the Sunday interview, adding that she planned to speak with the lawyer again the following day.
Cormen declined to comment and Lowrey did not return requests for comment by press time.
