A graduate student who was dismissed from a Pennsylvania State University doctoral program has lost her appeal in a gender discrimination, retaliation and hostile educational environment case.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reinstate a suit by Yan Yan against PSU, the chair of her program, and a male doctoral student in her lab.
The Intercollegiate Graduate Program in Cell and Developmental Biology admitted Yan as a Ph.D. candidate in June 2007, the decision said. She was assigned as a teaching assistant and to conduct research in the program chair’s lab and was scheduled to take her comp exam in the summer of 2008.
In a January 2008 lab accident, Yan broke two fingers. The next month, she complained to campus police that the doctoral student who was the senior lab assistant had threatened and intimidated her, leading to the injury. After an internal investigation, the two students were advised to stay away from each other, according to the court.
Yan failed her comp exam in May and was terminated from her lab position. She appealed on the grounds of her injury, the alleged harassment and the fact that the exam date had been moved up from the summer, the decision said. PSU agreed to let her retake the exam but she didn’t show up on the new date and was dismissed from the program.
She sued under Title IX and Section 1983, alleging gender-based discrimination, harassment and retaliation for filing the police and accident reports and for applying for workers’ compensation benefits. A lower-court judge threw out the case without trial.
