He Got A Slap on the Wrist. I Got Expelled.
Excerpts from my Eastman complaint to the New York State Division of Human Rights—submitted under penalty of perjury.
I have been illegally expelled from the Eastman School of Music for over 100 days. I was in the doctoral program in orchestral conducting—one of three women admitted to the program in over twenty years.
Eastman expelled me in open violation of their own policies, while they were under active investigation by the university’s Title IX Office.
I was expelled—with no process, warning, or prior disciplinary action—as the University of Rochester was conducting its second investigation into the same harassment and discrimination case that I started reporting six weeks into my first semester.
The first investigation found that Neil Varon—my then-advisor and Eastman’s still-current director of orchestras—violated university harassment and privacy policies. I’ve been told—by Eastman faculty, staff, and alums—that his abusive behavior has gone on for years. He told me point-blank that he got “a slap on the wrist” for it.
The very same administrators who gave him that “slap” were willing to lie on university letterhead so that they could expel me. They did it in open violation of their own policies, while they were under active investigation by the university’s Title IX Office.
45 UR employees—including all of UR senior leadership and 26 Eastman faculty—have had the material I’m going to share below—and much, much more—for weeks.
This, friends, is misogyny.
The text below is taken directly from my complaint against the Eastman School of Music, submitted to the New York State Division of Human Rights under penalty of perjury. I filed the complaint after being illegally expelled from the school with no process, warning, or prior disciplinary action.
Paragraphs are numbered as they are in the original filing. Redactions are marked in brackets. Some pronouns may be changed for anonymity.
21. Students told me about behavior issues with Varon when I arrived. In a conversation lasting several hours, [a graduate student] described disturbing behavior, mistreatment, and discrimination. The disclosures were detailed, specific, and consistent with behavior I later observed directly…
22. [The graduate student] described Varon as “crazy” and “obsessive.” She said he “can't emotionally regulate” and I would need to “reinforce his good behavior” to avoid triggering hostility toward myself or others.
23. [The student] detailed specific incidents of Varon engaging in profanity, screaming, and hostility…
Varon screamed at a group of students— “a bunch of freshman girls”—with such hostility that the entire rehearsal broke down.
He said he got “a slap on the wrist” for the behavior.
23.a Note: In my statements to university investigators, I noted that Varon’s aggression was overwhelmingly directed at women…
[Redacted]
25. [The student] described one incident of misconduct that was so extreme, public, and recent—taking place the previous semester—I heard multiple accounts within days of arriving at Eastman.
As [the student] described it, Varon screamed at a group of students—whom she described as, “a bunch of freshman girls”—with such hostility that the entire rehearsal broke down and some of the women were later reduced to tears.
25.a Note: [The student] noted that students petitioned to have Varon removed from his position because of the incident. She dismissed the effort as futile, citing his status as a tenured professor. Other students echoed this assumption, as did many administrators.
26. A male teaching assistant who had coached the women told me that Varon had created the conditions for that dramatic rehearsal breakdown. He said Varon’s hostility toward the students throughout the entire rehearsal cycle left them so terrified that they were unable to play acceptably…
The school cited my “failure to engage in respectful communication” as misconduct in my expulsion letter.
They gave no details.
27. Varon himself mentioned the widely criticized rehearsal breakdown—unprompted—in a discussion with me and [another student].
Varon laughed as he recounted the students’ reactions to his aggression and said he thought he had effectively motivated them. Varon felt that he had received, “a slap on the wrist,” for his behavior, adding that he appreciated working under Dean Jamal Rossi because, “he mostly leaves me alone.”
He said the auditions were “fucking painful” because diversity efforts were bringing in “charity cases.”
28. In my first day working for Varon, I proctored auditions for him. He became so hostile with some students that they were shaking and tearful. All the students he behaved aggressively with were women. He was behind a screen intended to anonymize auditionees, but it was poorly constructed.
29. He assessed outcomes with racially coded language, saying the auditions were “fucking painful” because diversity efforts were bringing in “charity cases.”
29.a Note: In my expulsion letter, Eastman leadership claimed I created “a hostile, uncomfortable, and unsafe environment for students.” They offered no details or substantiation. (See Appendix A ¶48-54) …
30. A few weeks into the semester, Varon asked [a faculty member], Professor of Violin, to coach a string sectional.
30.a Note: As concertmaster of [an orchestra], [the faculty]’s expertise in orchestral string playing was significant. Despite never having played a string instrument—and not attending the rehearsal—Varon later disagreed with her choices.
31. When Varon found out about her decisions the next day—in a class in which I, [a student], [another student], and several other students were in attendance—Varon started repeatedly screaming that her decisions were “bullshit.” When a female student said she liked [the faculty]’s decisions better, Varon yelled, “Oh I know you do, sweetheart, that's why we're not doing them.”
Eastman said my “tone” did not reflect “Meliora values.”
31.a Note: This occurred during a required conducting course—a core component of the program. Varon later instituted a retroactive attendance policy to compel my presence in this course, with the support of Eastman’s leadership, even though I had taken accommodations to limit my contact with him due to harassment. (See ¶107, 132)
It is the same course in which his aggression toward me —which had developed out of repeated harassment—escalated to such a degree that I ended my session after fifteen minutes, an event which triggered the reporting process... (See ¶54)
31.b Note: Varon’s inappropriate behavior was mirrored by his almost entirely male cohort. [A male doctoral student] used the f-word gratuitously and unapologetically in professional settings… When I briefly mentioned to [the student] that his language had become excessive, he dismissed the concern.
Eastman leadership claimed I created “a hostile, uncomfortable, and unsafe environment for students.”
They gave no details.
31.c Note: The school later cited my “failure to engage in respectful communication” as a misconduct allegation in my expulsion letter—in addition to prior allegations that my “tone” did not reflect “Meliora values.” They offered no details or substantiation. ( See ¶307 and Appendix A ¶60-62)
(End of DHR excerpt.)
I am one of three women Neil Varon has admitted to this doctorate in his 23-year tenure. He’s taught roughly forty men.
Once more, for the people in the back:
This is what misogyny looks like.
In the coming weeks, I’ll be releasing more—and tracking the university’s response. Stay tuned.
To take action, go to thefire.org/rochester to demand accountability from Eastman and UR.
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The misogyny in society, and music, takes so many forms. In a college choir, the director required a sleepy student to get up before the entire class and lift her shirt to above her waist and show everyone the butt of her pajama pants and then repeat more than once that they said “foxy.” I recall feeling sorry for her but she played it off as good-natured banter. It never occurred to me until years later that this was actually extremely inappropriate behavior for a 50-something man (or any age to do but the authority he projected compounded it). I ended up leaving that choir because the same director didn’t want to honor my (legally required) disability accommodations. I’m sorry you and all those students, faculty and staff harassed by this director are going through this and I’m equally incensed that other people enabled this behavior.
When I played in a college orchestra this is how the director behaved, especially towards women professors and staff. It was so pervasive. But it wasn’t my major - I quit. I saw this type of behavior again in my then-husband’s medical training between female students and male professors. In a friend’s graduate programs she was assaulted and force out of her program, losing years of scientific research data, and the perpetrator stayed. It is important to have the right language but it’s not nearly enough because it happens over and over and over at so many institutions.