To Attorney Michelle McConaghy, USAO-CT Chief of the Civil Division’s Defensive Unit:
Two articles were recently published by a student-run newspaper, The QU Chronicle, with the following titles: “Former PA student sues Quinnipiac for discrimination against her mental disabilities and Ukrainian nationality” and “Recent lawsuit spotlights mental health unease within Quinnipiac PA program.” The QU Chronicle journalists identified possible evidence of multiple Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) violations, including discrimination, retaliation, and breach of contracts occurring by Quinnipiac University’s (QU) Physician Assistant (PA) Program. Former U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Deirdre Daly, was contacted for her opinion for the first article but declined to comment. She referred to you by name, to our understanding, for your office’s ability to assist further. The QU Chronicle journalists then attempted to contact you but your office declined to comment.
Attorney Daly was instrumental in holding QU accountable for a single act of discrimination for which QU was found guilty for in December of 2014. Included in the settlement agreement between the United States of America and Quinnipiac University under the Americans with Disabilities Act, QU was required to create a policy that would include conducting “an individualized assessment and case-by-case determination as to whether and what modification(s) can be made to allow students with mental health disabilities to participate in the educational programs at Quinnipiac, and to continue to attend their classes while seeking treatment for mental health conditions.” Also included in the settlement agreement was a provision to review QU’s compliance with this agreement or Title III of the ADA at any time. We formally ask that this compliance review be conducted now.
We want to bring to your attention the actions of the QU PA faculty against former and current QU PA students who qualify as individuals with disabilities over an indeterminate number of years. If students self-identify to QU PA faculty, they are singled out for their mental health issues, need for accommodations, and questioned in detail, without representation or advocacy from the QU department that handles ADA compliance and privacy. When a student officially asks for accommodations, QU PA Program disregards the recommendations of qualified experts or providers who have evaluated the student for his or her case-by-case determined needs. QU PA Program instead gives the student the minimum standard accommodations that they feel are “reasonable.” Students with disabilities often cannot reach their full potential in academics without proper accommodations.
Furthermore, the QU PA Program has a disciplinary committee for any infractions to their policies. During these meetings, students’ illnesses and diagnoses, treatments, and management of their disabilities are discussed in great detail, violating their right to privacy, in addition to shaming them for their poor academic performance. The disciplinary committee punishes students with disabilities by placing them on probation, suspension, or dismissal instead of seeking ways on how to better support them and allow them to continue with the current class. As a result, these students experience more severe punishments, harassment, intimidation, retaliation, and ultimate dismissal from the program in disproportionate numbers. Most appeals are denied with the reason of not meeting sufficient academic performance regardless of the student’s extenuating circumstances. In contrast, some students are given preferential treatment and are allowed to continue with minimal to no consequences, despite deficient academic performance.
These discriminatory and predatory practices of medical training programs contribute to and continue the toxic culture of mistreatment and abuse. Stigmatization of mental health issues
experienced by students in training programs like QU PA Program has been a documented problem in the research for years, but very little has been done to address it for students and clinicians as a whole. In 2020, Health Professions Education journal published the results of a multi-institutional study on the mental health of 320 PA students. These researchers found high numbers of burnout, depression, and anxiety in the PA student population, similar to the medical student population, which has more published research on this topic (Johnson et. al, 2020). Ultimately, this problem affects the quality of educational outcomes and the future of healthcare delivery as both students and clinicians often fear repercussions from their programs or licensure boards, which prevents them from seeking mental health treatment and being the most effective providers they can be for patients.
The discriminatory treatment, including the culture of mental health stigma created by the PA faculty, has been a destructive force for these students and their families, penalizing them with immense student debt and loss of career upon their dismissal. This does not include the investment of years of preparation in order to be selected for this competitive program and school. They end up with lasting trauma that worsens their mental health for years to come. Consequently, students are denied equal opportunity to participate in or benefit from the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations provided by the university.
QU PA Program is nationally recognized, highly ranked, and enjoys a position of privilege and power on campus and in the community. In turn, their students are susceptible to mistreatment and discrimination by a powerful, highly competitive program that brings significant revenue to QU. The university’s administrators are aware of the multiple complaints but are not motivated
to defend students and continue to support the PA Program’s decisions and actions without oversight. We believe that the recent publicity may have pressured QU to be more aware and careful, but an investigation and audit by your office may be the only catalyst for change in this program. Thus, we ask that your department investigate these claims and hold QU and the PA faculty accountable and responsible for any actions that you deem harmful and illegal to students, past and present.
Sincerely,
A group consisting of: current PA students, QU PA graduates, and dismissed QU PA students and their families. During the investigation we will supply our names for the record, but until then we ask that our identity be kept confidential due to retaliation concerns.
References:
Brower, K. J. (2021). Professional Stigma of Mental Health Issues: Physicians Are Both the Cause and Solution. Academic Medicine, 96(5), 635–
640. https://doi.org/10.1097/acm.0000000000003998
Johnson, A. K., Blackstone, S. R., Skelly, A., & Simmons, W. (2020). The Relationship Between Depression, Anxiety, and Burnout Among Physician Assistant Students: A Multi-Institutional Study. Health Professions Education, 6(3), 420–427. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hpe.2020.04.003
Mongkol, C. (2022a, April 8). Former PA student sues Quinnipiac for discrimination against her mental disabilities and Ukrainian nationality. The Quinnipiac Chronicle. Retrieved April 8, 2022, from https://quchronicle.com/77040/news/former-pa-student-alleges-quinnipiac-discriminated against-her-mental-disabilities-and-ukrainian-nationality/
Mongkol, C. (2022b, April 26). Recent lawsuit spotlights mental health unease within Quinnipiac PA program. The Quinnipiac Chronicle. Retrieved April 26, 2022,
from https://quchronicle.com/77372/news/recent-lawsuit-spotlights-mental-health-unease-within pa-program/
Settlement Agreement between the United States of America and Quinnipiac University. (2014, December 19). ADA. Retrieved April 26, 2022, from https://www.ada.gov/quinnipiac_sa.htm
Sent to:
Attorney Michelle McConaghy, USAO-CT’s chief of the Civil Division’s Defensive Unit via email and mail: Michelle.McConaghy@usdoj.gov, US Attorney's Office, New Haven Office, 157 Church Street, Floor 25, New Haven, CT 06510
CC:
Attorney Vanessa Roberts Avery, District Attorney via email and
mail: Vanessa.Avery@usdoj.gov, US Attorney's Office, New Haven Office, 157 Church Street, Floor 25, New Haven, CT 06510
Governor Ned Lamont: governor.lamont@ct.gov
Senator Chris Murphy: info@chrismurphy.com, senator@murphy.senate.gov Senator Richard Blumenthal: Senator@blumenthal.senate.gov
AAPA: advocacy@aapa.org, media@aapa.org, lgables@aapa.org
ACLU of Connecticut: David McGuire dmcguire@acluct.org
ADA: ada.complaint@usdoj.gov
Advocacy Unlimited: info@advocacyunlimited.org
ARC-PA: accreditationservices@arc-pa.org
Association on Higher Education and Disability: stephan@ahead.org
Center for Disability Rights (CDR): carmen@cdr-ct.org, marcanthony@cdr-ct.org CT Legal Rights Project: info@clrp.org
Lynda Rizzo-Stowe: CHRO.Eastern@ct.gov
Mental Health Connecticut: info@mhconn.org, DThornton@mhconn.org
National Alliance on Mental Health CT: admin@namict.org
Office of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities (OPA): info@DisRightsCT.org The Arc Connecticut: cscully@thearcct.org
ABC: news@abc6.com
CBS: investigates@cbsnews.com
CT Examiner: e.otte@ctexaminer.com
CT Post: ktorres@scni.com
FOX: newstips@fox61.com
Greenwich Time: CRacine@hearstmediact.com
Hartford Courant: hbennett@courant.com
Manchester Journal Inquirer: news@journalinquirer.com
Middletown Press: hushin.a.hushin@gmail.com, al.santangelo@hearstmediact.com New Haven Register: tips@ctnews.com
News 8 CT: reportit@wtnh.com
Norwich Bulletin: bcallahan@gannett.com, tballantyne@norwichbulletin.com NYT: tips@nytimes.com
Republic-American Newspaper: jcullen@rep-am.com, phughes@rep-am.com, akarolyi@rep am.com
Stamford Advocate: mpignataro@stamfordadvocate.com, rweiner@greenwichtime.com The Day: tips@theday.com, cityeditor@theday.com
The News-Times: Dan.Brechlin@hearstmediact.com
The QU Chronicle: thequchronicle@gmail.com
The Record-Journal: newsroom@record-journal.com
Yale Daily News: editor@yaledailynews.com