Screen shot from University of California TV via YouTube
Jed Rubenfeld, professor at Yale University and husband of Amy Chua — author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother — has been placed on a two-year suspension after accusations from sexual harassment by students.
According to NYMag, the provost at Yale Law School sent a message to faculty declaring that Rubenfeld “will leave his position as a member of the YLS faculty for a two-year period, effective immediately.” He will also be prevented from teaching certain courses and asked to stay away from gatherings with students.
Law-school students were warned by peers about sexual harassment and to be careful and stay away from him. The alleged incidents took place both at the school and in his home where he had parties. He’s accused of verbal harassment, unwanted touching, and attempted kissing, accusations which have been denied by Rubenfeld himself. The professor acknowledged the internal investigation by Yale University into his interactions with students also includes allegations of offering to drive students home while he was under the influence.
“‘I absolutely, unequivocally, 100 percent deny that I ever sexually harassed anyone, whether verbally or otherwise… Yes, I’ve said stupid things that I regret over the course of my 30 years as professor, and no professor who’s taught as long as I have that I know doesn’t have things that they regret that they said… I think subsequent to me having written some controversial articles about sexual assault, that I became a target of people making false allegations against me,” he told NY Mag. Though he says he doesn’t know who made these sexual harassment claims against him, one young woman who reported him said to NY Mag “Yale’s policy requires I [identify] myself to him. I had to, and I did so at considerable risk given his influence in the legal community.”
According to the Guardian, both Rubenfeld and Chua held powerful roles at the university. Chua, who believed her classes were “among the most popular at law school, especially for women and minorities”, was nominated for a Yale Law Women Teaching Award in 2019. She has served on a committee that helped students to get prestigious clerkships, including the Supreme Court. Chua said she “could not comment on ‘Jed’s issues’ and her own role at Yale ‘was not raised at all in the course of the investigation about Jed. No one called me or questioned me, and I don’t believe anyone mentioned me in the proceedings.’”
Chua has since then given up the role, saying, “It was actually a pleasure to step back – it was so much work! Especially because I went to enormous lengths to help place students from state schools or marginalized backgrounds that many judges tended to overlook. I never wanted to be on the committee, but the dean at the time begged me to serve on it, again because I had such success with historically underrepresented groups,” she said to the Guardian.
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