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Oregon Health & Science University dean David Jacoby sent a seven-page letter to select staff this afternoon explaining his role in responding to accusations by a student that former OHSU physician Daniel Marks had taken surreptitious pictures of female students with his smartphone during a class.
“This statement is intended to provide further information and context regarding my involvement in responding to a student’s concern about Dr. Daniel Marks’s conduct, which the student raised with me in the late fall of 2022, and related issues,” Jacoby wote in the letter, which was obtained by WW.
Jacoby said he was the first OHSU official to learn of the accusations by a student, whom he didn’t name. In a mea culpa, Jacoby said he could have acted more quickly once he learned of them and that he could have figured out sooner that the photos were “sexually harassing in nature.”
Jacoby said that an investigation promised by OHSU president Danny Jacobs on Jan. 19 hasn’t begun.
“Trust must be restored,” Jacobs said in the email describing the investigation.
Jacoby disclaimed any responsibility for paying Marks a $46,000 bonus just before Marks was fired, a development first reported by The Oregonian. Eligibility for the President’s Recognition Awards, a program first reported by WW, was determined by “(1) being in an eligible position and (2) being employed as of specified dates,” Jacoby wrote.
“None of the communications that I received or saw from the administration and/or HR indicated that the Presidential Award was discretionary or in any way performance based,” Jacoby wrote. “Rather, the eligibility criteria announced by the president and HR were limited to whether employees held specific roles as of particular dates, including deanship roles such as the one held by Dr. Marks.”
Jacobs and Jacoby are at odds over who was responsible for Marks’ bonus.
In his Jan. 19 email to staff, Jacobs wrote: “I have asked for more information from leaders involved about reporting timeliness and actions taken in response, including the decision to approve the presidential recognition award for Dr. Marks. The information I have received at this point is insufficient.”
Today, Jacoby wrote: “In keeping with the name of the bonus, I believe only the OHSU President had the power to determine the eligibility criteria for the Presidential Award, presumably in consultation with HR and legal.”
OHSU officials said the university is seeking to improve. “Dr. Jacobs recognizes the distress this situation has caused the OHSU community, and looks forward to the opportunity to rebuild trust,” spokeswoman Sara Hottman wrote. “As he mentioned in a statement on Jan. 19, he is authorizing a review of OHSU’s response so we can identify improvements in our processes and policies.”
Jacoby gave a detailed timeline of the Marks scandal.
“At 12:53 p.m. on October 20, 2022, I received an email from a student asking to meet with me,” Jacoby wrote in the letter. “The request did not specify the topic and was light in tone. The student asked, ‘Any chance you’re free today around 3?’ and ‘could I take 10 minutes of your time?’”
Jacoby said he responded by saying that he was leaving on a work trip to Thailand the next morning and would be gone through Nov. 2. He and the student spoke by phone that afternoon. The student had seen Marks taking photos of students in the MD/PhD Journal Club without permission “and for no evident reason.”
The Journal Club’s 30 students met weekly. Jacoby led it, often with help from Marks. Jacoby said he never saw Marks “engaging in conduct of this kind or other inappropriate conduct.”
“The student asked me to speak to Dr. Marks about this concern, and I said that I would do so,” Jacoby wrote. “I made clear, however, that I would not be able to meet with Dr. Marks until I returned from my trip.”
Jacoby said he spoke to Marks as soon as he returned from Thailand, and Marks denied taking photographs. Jacoby followed up with the student, telling the student that Marks had denied the allegations.
“The student followed up with an email (that contained no text) at 4:29 p.m. that day, Nov. 2, 2022, providing a photograph that showed Dr. Marks with his phone open to the camera app and seemingly placed on or near his knee under the desk where he was seated in a round circle of desks,” Jacoby wrote.
Jacoby said he confronted Marks again, saying he had seen the photo.
“Dr. Marks again denied that he had taken any photos of students in class,” Jacoby wrote in the letter. “He claimed he had, at times, had his phone in his hand while leading the class and that this may have given students the impression that he was taking a photo.”
Jacoby spoke with the student again, and the student described bringing a formal complaint to the associate dean for undergraduate medical education, Dr. Tracy Bumsted. Jacoby said he supported the move.
In retrospect, Jacoby said he could have done more.
“I believe that I was responsive to the student’s concerns and supportive of the student throughout this process,” Jacoby wrote. “But with the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had acted more quickly and that I had been more communicative and more emphatic about my support for the student. I also wish I had appreciated the sexually inappropriate nature of the conduct more quickly than I did.”
Marks resigned after two investigations over the course of 2023, Jacoby said.
“In early September 2023 I was notified of the results of the second investigation,” Jacoby said. “My understanding was that the termination would be handled by HR and the OHSU President and that I would not be involved. And indeed, I had no role in any disciplinary discussions with Dr. Marks, nor did I participate in any meetings or conversations that the president and HR presumably had with him regarding the ending of his employment. Some time in the first half of October 2023, Dr. Marks told me he had resigned effective November 3, 2023.”