Not true we did nothing, says US varsity on Msian student who committed suicide

Utah State University says it provided counselling to the Malaysian student who complained she had been bullied. (Facebook pic) 

PETALING JAYA: The US university accused of not adequately addressing a Malaysian doctorate student’s complaints of bullying prior to her death in 2017 has rubbished the claim, saying it is “grossly inaccurate” to say it did nothing.

Amanda DeRito, a spokesman for Utah State University (USU), said for several months, faculty members from its clinical and counselling psychology programme and other administrators worked to address Jerusha Sanjeevi’s claims of being bullied.

“They intervened in a manner that was consistent with the graduate programme’s educational objectives and with Sanjeevi’s requests,” said DeRito, the crisis communications and issues management director at USU’s marketing and communications department.

Speaking to FMT, DeRito said faculty members directly engaged with Sanjeevi and another student following allegations of social exclusion and gossip. They also kept tabs on the situation.

They reached out to students to check on their well-being and reassigned labs and mentors as well, she said.

“The office of equity also provided training on respectful interactions in a professional environment to Sanjeevi’s entire student cohort,” she added.

Jerusha Sanjeevi.

DeRito said this was consistent with the programme’s policies. When students in the programme experienced harassment, intimidation or interpersonal conflicts, the faculty and staff would appropriately intervene.

Sanjeevi, then 24, was a doctoral student at USU. She was of Chinese and Indian heritage and was born and raised in Malaysia. She enrolled in the USU psychology PhD programme in 2016.

Media reports from the US suggest that she repeatedly complained to numerous authorities at her faculty over sustained bullying by at least two fellow USU psychology PhD students.

Some of these complaints included rumours being spread by students in her cohort, making fun of her name and told that she “smelled like Indian food”. She was also allegedly labelled as a “slut” and “whore”.

The lawsuit alleged that Sanjeevi also had a meeting with the head of her department to report that she felt bullied and afraid of one particular member of her cohort. The head apparently labelled the issue as a “conflict between students” and reportedly refused to investigate her claims.

Sanjeevi then reported the alleged bullying to other faculty members.

After eight months of racist bullying by classmates, Sanjeevi was found dead as a result of acute carbon monoxide poisoning.

Just days before her death, Sanjeevi had reportedly told a friend that she was overwhelmed by the department’s apparent apathy about her claims.

Sanjeevi’s boyfriend, Matthew Bick, is now suing the USU, claiming that Sanjeevi’s complaints were not taken seriously and the department “knowingly allowed” her to be “verbally abused, intimidated and subjected to cultural and racist discrimination”.

All this collectively rendered her “so emotionally devastated and hopeless that she committed suicide”, according to the lawsuit quoted in a report by The Daily Beast.

Bick also placed blame on the PhD programme’s failure to address the bullying and a failure to mediate intercultural conflict between Sanjeevi and her alleged bully. He is seeking damages for Sanjeevi’s family.

Besides USU, the lawsuit named the head of the psychology department, some of the students who were in her cohort and professors as defendants.

DeRito said it was inappropriate to “wage litigation through the media”. As with all student matters and pending litigation, she added the university is also limited in what it could say.

“The facts should and will ultimately guide the outcome of this matter and it is grossly inaccurate to say that USU did nothing.”

She also said that Sanjeevi’s suicide was a tragic event that had a huge impact on the psychology department and on the university.

“She was a promising student and her death tremendously affected her fellow students as well as staff and faculty in the department.”

FMT has reached out to Bick and US-based lawyer Richard Kaplan, who is representing the family, for comments. - FMT