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A senior doctor at Oregon Health & Science University is organizing a protest of president Danny Jacobs’ sudden ouster of the dean of the OHSU medical school last week.
Dr. Jeffrey Jensen, vice chair of research, obstetrics and gynecology in the School of Medicine, sent out a flyer asking staff to join a “demonstration of support for Dean David Jacoby” at the Mackenzie Hall Courtyard, on Feb. 29, from noon to 1 pm.
“There needs to be call to action,” Jensen tells WW. “I’m fed up. There has never been a time when this place has been so unsettled.”
Jensen has been on the faculty at OHSU since 1992.
In the email to staffers inviting them to the protest, Jensen wrote: “OHSU has grown and evolved in many positive ways since I started residency here in 1985. Unfortunately, events of the last several years have greatly challenged my optimism and enthusiasm for our great institution, and confidence in President Jacobs’ leadership. To me, the decision to fire Dean Jacoby represents a watershed moment. We need change, and this will not occur without engagement. As individuals, we risk retaliation if we speak out.”
Jacobs shocked many staff last week when he asked Jacoby to resign over his handling of Dr. Daniel Marks, a former faculty member who is accused of taking surreptitious photos of women in one of his classes on a smartphone. Jacoby co-taught the class and was Marks’ supervisor.
In lieu of comment on the protest, an OHSU spokeswoman referred to an email Jacobs sent to staff last week.
In that email, Jacobs said he asked Jacoby to resign because “Jacoby’s choices over the past several weeks have undermined a confidential process that OHSU, with our Office of Civil Rights Investigations and Compliance, is devoted and dedicated to building and enhancing, and I have lost confidence in his leadership.”
Jacobs didn’t describe those choices, but in January, Jacoby sent a seven-page letter to select staff explaining his role in the scandal, an account that didn’t mesh in all ways with communications from Jacobs.
“When any individual in a leadership capacity prioritizes self-interest over guiding principles of the organization and its well-being, it not only undermines their integrity, but it also casts a long and dark shadow over the very essence of what we must uphold,” Jacobs wrote today. “Such actions are antithetical to the core values that form the bedrock of our community and erode the trust and respect integral to our success.”
Jensen said he is organizing the protest to bring attention to OHSU’s “crisis in leadership.”
“The potential impact will be magnified by your presence and diminished by your absence,” he wrote in his email to staff. “The weather calls for rain, so be prepared and don’t let this dampen your enthusiasm for change.”