Yale Medical Professor Gets Sex Bias Trial Over Honorific Role

Yale University must face trial on claims by a male professor that his removal as a medical school endowed chair after prior punishment for sexual harassment amounted to sex discrimination.

The ruling Wednesday by the US District Court for the District of Connecticut said losing that honorific designation could be an adverse employment action under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act even though the professor’s pay allegedly didn’t change. It cited evidence that holding an “endowed chair signals that the holder is especially accomplished” in a specific field and that such an honor typically is only given to ...