Dr. David Rosenberg has resigned as acting dean of the Wayne State University School of Medicine, citing the controversy over how the school treated his predecessor.
Last month, the school placed the former dean, Dr. Wael Sakr on administrative leave with no explanation. Vice President of Health Affairs Dr. Bernard J. Costello informed staff of the move citing “personnel matters” and gave the staff explicit instructions to not contact Sakr.
In a letter sent to staff over the weekend, Rosenberg said he had initially declined the post and accepted it on an interim basis without realizing the executive committee of the school had not been consulted, as is the norm.
“While I was told that this was an emergent and temporary situation, in hindsight, I should have inquired whether this had been done,” Rosenberg wrote. “Additionally, the absence of any cogent explanation for the university’s actions has been a source of frustration for all of us.”
Rosenberg also said the request to refrain from contacting Sakr could infringe on academic freedom and freedom of speech.
“Dean Sakr and I have been close colleagues and good friends for many years, and I have always known him to be a man of good character with unwavering devotion to the School of Medicine and University,” Rosenberg wrote.
Rosenberg will remain with the school. He said his resignation as dean was partly motivated by a need to focus full-time on his other responsiblities, including chairing the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurosciences.
School spokesman Matthew Lockwood said he couldn’t comment on personnel matters.
Sakr’s leave has widened a rift between faculty and school President Kimberly Espy.
Citing two anonymous sources, The Detroit News reported last week that the Board of Governors is preparing to fire Espy because of her handling of the Sakr situation and other issues. The board has declined to discuss Espy’s future.
The board did abruptly cancel its regular meeting scheduled last week and hired an outside spokesman, Peter Van Dyke, to handle media inquiries.
Van Dyke told the Free Press in an email that he couldn’t discuss Espy’s employment because of personnel reasons. He did say that the board members recently held a retreat that resulted “in a number of considerations that they needed more time to digest before the next board meeting.”
Espy declined a Free Press request for an interview.
The treatment of Sakr and the apparent disregard for shared governance has generated blowback from faculty and staff, said Jennifer Sheridan Moss, president of the Wayne Academic Union, which represents about 1,600 faculty and academic staff members.
Almost 200 of them signed a letter demanding impartial due process for Sakr and saying that if the allegations, which the letter did not define, are unfounded, he should be immediately returned to his job.
“It’s very hard to get faculty riled up, to be honest, about anything,” Moss said. “But the School of Medicine faculty were very angry. They were angry about the way in which Dr. Sakr was put on leave, implying that he had done something wrong.”
Part of the problem is that the school has made no formal accusations against Sakr, Moss said.
“This defamation by silence is just a frightening way to get rid of people,” Moss said.
Sakr is a pathologist by training who’s been at Wayne for 35 years, according to the faculty letter.
The Free Press left a message seeking comment from Sakr.
Moss said that in a statement to faculty and others over the weekend, Sakr affirmed the “allegations against him do not involve sexual harassment, financial mismanagement, or racial bias.”
Federal court records show that Sakr is accused of racial discrimination in a lawsuit against Wayne State.
In the lawsuit filed in 2023, a Black doctor, Stanley Berry, claims Sakr passed over him for the position of chair of the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and appointed a lesser qualified white doctor. The suit says Sakr told Berry that the staff wouldn’t work with him
“They don’t love you, and I don’t think they ever will,” Sakr told Berry, according to the lawsuit.
Berry claims that the animosity among staffers stems from him being outspoken about racial bias in maternal health care.
The suit is pending in federal court, where a judge is considering requests from both sides to avoid a trial.
Lawyers for the school say the claim lacks merit and should be dismissed.
Berry claims there is “no genuine dispute as to any material fact arising out of the claims” and that he’s entitled to a judgment in his favor as a matter of law.
Contact John Wisely: jwisely@freepress.com. On X: @jwisely
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Wayne State medical school’s interim dean resigns amid controversy involving predecessor
Reporting by John Wisely, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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