MY EXPERIENCE AS A FIRST YEAR MEDICAL STUDENT IN THE COLUMBIA
UNIVERSITY
- MEDICAL
SCHOOL FOR INTERNATIONAL HEALTH (CU - MSIH)
I started medical school in Be'er Sheva, Israel in August of 2012. This really was a fascinating nodal point in my life. The whole endeavor necessitated a closure of one chapter and the opening of a fresh new page in another country. The program I was headed to was called the Medical School for International Health (CU - MSIH) and it was affiliated with Columbia University and Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Columbia University interviews and recruits the students in New York City while the school itself is located on the campus of Ben Gurion University / Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva, Israel. Students in the program spend the first three years of school in Israel and complete the fourth year with classes in Columbia University plus a final "international health" module. Leaving New York City during the summer after accepting the invitation from CU - MSIH, I left behind a wonderful and well-paying job in a stimulating medical field, closed the lease on my apartment, celebrated my departure with my friends, family and employers in Brooklyn, liquidated most of my belongings, and invested substantial sums of money into travel and relocation expenses.
It was bright and quite warm when I flew into Ben Gurion Airport in Tel-Aviv and boarded a train headed to Be'er Sheva (about 1 hour South of Tel-Aviv). The palm trees glistened in the sun and soon the green landscape I saw from the train window turned to a reddish-yellow desert. I was determined to hit the ground running and to acclimate myself to the new conditions as quickly as possible. I was very excited, to say the least, about being able to actually live in Israel and not just to fly in for a brief visit. All was well, I was one of the top students in my class and I made great progress in regular medical school classes as well as in my Hebrew language studies. I was soon elected to the student council for a position of the external affairs coordinator and in this capacity I met new friends in the Israeli student union. It really was a wonderful start: I was looking forward with delight to the next three years in Israel and the vast amount of medical knowledge and life experience I would accumulate while living there. I even submitted two lengthy and ebullient blogs to the CU - MSIH internet page when my turn arrived to be one of the "bloggers of the month" for the program:
CU - MSIH BLOG
POST #1
CU - MSIH BLOG
POST #2
While there was a number of "small scale" missile attacks from Gaza with the accompanying air-raid siren warnings in Be'er Sheva soon after school started, most of us (including myself) understood the situation on the ground before we arrived in Israel and we were not rattled by these events. During those times, we tried to find shelter in "secure areas" and trusted in the capabilities of the Iron Dome air defense system. Furthermore, there was an impression that if any significant conflict did erupt in the region, the CU - MSIH administration would be well prepared to secure our safety and academic future. I specifically remember this issue coming up during my interview with a Columbia University representative in New York City in March, 2012. I remember asking about the security situation and how the CU - MSIH program handled itself within that context. I was then firmly reassured by my interviewer about the program's security and the whole issue was quickly brushed aside without much fanfare for a different topic of conversation. The program, after all, bore the seals of both Columbia University and Ben-Gurion University: both highly respected and well known academic institutions. With that in mind, who would (I certainly did not) question the competence of the CU - MSIH administration or the program's sense of fiduciary responsibility to the students it recruited?
And then it happened ...
Serious hostilities erupted in Gaza at the end of November, 2012 immediately after a senior Hamas military commander in Gaza was targeted and killed by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) in retaliation for a prior violent incident on the Gaza border. Large amounts of missiles were fired from Gaza into Israel and Be'er Sheva was subjected to massive rocket attacks night and day for many days. Suffice it to say that I really lived through something. Shockingly, the CU - MSIH administration had no plan for this event despite being in what is widely considered a “front line community” and having experienced rocket fire multiple times in the past. I later learned that there were American student exchange programs (undergraduate level) with Ben Gurion University in Be'er Sheva which had real contingency planning in place during this dangerous time: buses transported these students to areas out of missile range where studies continued unimpeded and their semester resumed with little disruption once hostilities ceased. CU - MSIH, however, did not have such crucial contingency planning in place. My entire medical school class was completely dispersed and most students left the country.
Everyone had to fend for themselves in the war zone while the CU - MSIH administration promoted a false sense of security and failed to urge the CU - MSIH students in Be'er Sheva to seek shelter outside of missile range. After a day and night of insanity, air raid sirens going off every 40 minutes, fighter-bombers thundering all night long, missiles flying in, air defense batteries discharging, explosions being heard and felt all around, gunships rattling across the sky, seeing my neighbors panic and cry on the stairs of my apartment building, sleeping with my shoes and clothes on in order to be able to quickly run to some sort of safety when the sirens went off (when the air-raid sirens go off in Be'er Sheva, the estimated amount of time one has to seek safety is about 45 seconds - 1 minute), trying to keep my family back in the United States calm, and looking for guidance from the CU - MSIH administration which I still trusted at the time I finally contacted one of the main administrators in CU - MSIH in Be'er Sheva. I informed the CU - MSIH administrator about the very serious telephone calls I received from my Israeli friends inside and outside of Be'er Sheva. I was feeling very uneasy. These friends told me explicitly to seek shelter outside of Be'er Sheva and to evacuate North away from the war zone. The hospital in which most of my classes were held was placed on a war-time footing and all but critical care patients were evacuated from the hospital in anticipation of war casualties. Furthermore, I happened to live near the train station at the time and I saw with my own eyes the steady streams of Be'er Sheva residents who moved toward the station in order to evacuate North during a brief pause in the bombing.
The CU - MSIH administrator in Be'er Sheva informed me not to be concerned. He chalked up the stern warnings I was receiving from my Israeli friends to mere expressions of empathy. I still clearly remember his words when I think back to that telephone conversation. It is a memory sharp and clear like a diamond and will surely remain with me for a long time. He reassured me that if the need to evacuate from the city came, the CU - MSIH administration would certainly inform the students. This was Thursday morning after a hellish Wednesday afternoon and an entire night of massive bombing and constant explosions while Israel was rapidly mobilizing large numbers of reservists for a ground assault into Gaza. Reluctantly ignoring my own intuition about the situation, I trusted the CU - MSIH administrator's instructions. He was the CU - MSIH co-director's right hand man in Be'er Sheva and I assumed that he was to be trusted. I politely refused offers of shelter in the North and transportation out of Be'er Sheva from my friends in Israel and some fellow students in the CU - MSIH program. I remained in Be'er Sheva only to realize later that I was truly risking life and limb.
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The girl who called me and advised me to leave Be'er Sheva as soon as possible then put me in touch with another girl from class who put me in touch with another person from the Israeli medical program who then put me in touch with a wonderful family in a small town called Ra'anana (North of Be'er Sheva and out of missile range). I now had a destination where I could take refuge and remain safe, away from the bombing for some time. Friday in Be'er Sheva is a day when the trains stop running at 2 pm as Shabbat is observed. I looked at the clock on the wall, it was too late for me to take the train going North. It was also not possible to walk the long distance across open ground to the bus station due to the incoming missiles (the kill radius of the shrapnel was weighing heavily on my mind) and unpredictable timing of air-raid sirens. I was lucky to have some cash in my apartment and the number for a taxi service in Be'er Sheva. I really did not have what the dispatcher quoted as the price for a ride to Ra'anana but in the midst of this nightmare I managed to bargain the ride down to 100 American dollars. I shiver when I recollect those tense moments of bluffing and bargaining in a war zone. That was all the cash I had at the time so with that and the successful bargaining, I was able to leave Be'er Sheva.
I scrambled to pack some personal belongings together into a suitcase: laptop, some clothes, a few books to continue studying to some degree, a toothbrush, etc. Just some necessities which I would need for a few days away from Be'er Sheva. I then waited for what seemed like an eternity for the dispatcher to call and inform me that the taxi was on its way. I rushed downstairs and left a spare key to my apartment with a friend who chose to remain in the building. While waiting a few dreadful minutes downstairs with my suitcase before the taxi finally arrived I was thinking about what I would do if the sirens went off at that moment. I would have to leave everything where it was and run to some sort of safe area. I realized much later that the safe area in which I and my neighbors were gathering in the apartment building during the bombing was not safe at all. A near or direct rocket hit to the building would make minced meat out of all of us in a shrapnel filled split second. The taxi finally arrived on the desolate street. I evacuated from Be'er Sheva alone in the taxi on a day when air raid sirens howled across the town and indescribable booms of rocket/air defense explosions ripped through the air. The taxi ride out of Be'er Sheva was not without its ghastly thoughts. Incoming rockets and their shrapnel would instantly cut through a car like a hot knife through butter and brutally kill the passengers inside. I did not want to end up that way nor did I want to see this happen to the taxi driver who really was a very nice Israeli fellow.
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The car ride out of Be'er Sheva took almost one hour but it seemed like 5 minutes to me. Shock and awe, shock and rush. I was constantly on the phone exchanging text messages with my Israeli friends as well as with some fellow students in the program. My classmates were scattered all over the country. Some went North, some went South, some went elsewhere. Some of my Israeli friends were waiting for their turn to be called up for service on the front line while others were already called up and in the thick of things near Gaza. Finally, we reached Ra'anana and I arrived at the address of the family who so generously and lovingly offered to host me during this terrible time. I will never forget what these wonderful people did for me and how sweet it was to finally be able to sleep through a quiet night outside of the war zone: no missiles here, no sirens howling, no panic stricken neighbors in tears. I remained in Ra'anana until Sunday night, taken in like a family member by loving people who met me for the first time when I arrived at their door step that day. Again, I will never forget what they did for me and will be forever grateful to them. Thanks to them I was now far away from the mayhem ripping across Southern Israeli cities like Be'er Sheva. None the less, my fate was that of a refugee living out of a bag and hoping that the CU - MSIH school administration would come up with some sort of a plan.
But, alas, further unpleasant surprises were waiting for me ahead as far as the CU - MSIH administrative incompetence was concerned. After Shabbat I sent yet another text message to the CU - MSIH administrator (the same man who earlier instructed me to remain in the war zone) requesting information about any forthcoming plan from the CU - MSIH administration for the academic cycle etc. I made it clear in my message that I would be forced to fly back to the U.S. unless I received solid information from the CU - MSIH administration with regard to some reasonable plan for the academic cycle. Despite the rapid military escalation within the country and a real threat of regional war, I was still harboring some hope that the CU - MSIH administration would be competent enough to secure the academic cycle. And then came the next shocker: my phone rang and this time it was the voice of the CU - MSIH co-director on the other end. Before I had a chance to say "hello" I was stunned when a loutish, anxiety stricken voice growled at me the following crude phrase: "Who do you think you are, the mayor of the class?" Wow, what a way to clear the field of uncertainty! I will never forget the tone of his voice: it really was so vulgar in nature and it was the very last thing I expected from this person whose rank was respected and who was so advanced in age.
Ignoring the crude and rude vulgarism just launched at me I responded politely that I simply wanted to know if the school had any plans in place and that I was temporarily staying with an Israeli family in Ra'anana. Soon after I said that, the co-director abruptly cut me off and told me that he would call back in five minutes. I was sitting there by my laptop very perplexed next to one of the members of the family who hosted me in Ra'anana. I also had my parents on Skype waiting for concrete information from the CU - MSIH administration. The telephone call from the co-director was a profound embarrassment but I quickly realized that not I but rather the other person should feel embarrassed. Silence was hanging heavily in the air. The phone rang again after some time and it was the CU - MSIH co-director again. This time his voice sounded different and more composed than during his first phone call: the vulgar tone and troglodyte statements were now censored from his speech. It all seemed to me like a scene from an episode of the Twilight Zone.
The co-director started rambling something about staying with someone he knew without remembering that I already told him multiple times that I was already up North in Ra'anana. Despite being less abrasive on the phone now, the co-director was none the less completely detached from reality and it seemed to me that what I was telling him was not registering at all. It appeared that the administration was now clumsily scrambling (after days of inactivity and incompetence) to buy itself time and put on some semblance of effective leadership. Needless to say, it was all too pathetic to stomach. I once again asked the co-director for his plan in light of the war situation which was now spiraling out of control. He had nothing to tell me with regard to that and mentioned something about waiting for instructions from the local security force and day to day updates. That was simply not good enough to say the least and officially marked a scandalous failure of CU - MSIH administrative leadership.
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By Sunday afternoon, having lived through days upon days of CU - MSIH administrative incompetence and irresponsibility while the country raised the call-up ceiling to 75,000 reservists and readied itself for a broad spectrum war, I cashed in my return flight ticket with El Al airlines and arrived back home in New York City. Here I would like to thank El Al for being a truly marvelous airline. It took less than one minute on Sunday to change the return date on my round trip ticket with absolutely no fees or questions asked. The airline policy takes the gravity of such situations into account. That same day I had a seat on the next plane out of Tel Aviv headed for New York. El Al is really a fantastic airline.
While waiting to board the plane in Tel Aviv, I sent an E-mail to the CU - MSIH administration to inform the relevant individuals that I was leaving the country. I then received an E-mail back with the following words from a CU - MSIH administrator (the same administrator who earlier instructed me to remain in Be'er Sheva when the city was being shelled):
"Sorry to hear you're
leaving
us, especially as I
know we'll be up and
running again within a few days – which is how it always happens.
Take care."
Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2012
I was unnerved and beside myself to say the least when I read that message. The only way to describe such a foolish statement is to call it a classic case of adding insult to injury. After days upon days of having no contingency planning in place, doing nothing to help secure the students' personal safety and academic security and with the war still raging and approaching a crescendo the administrator now did the equivalent of claiming to have a crystal ball. That claim was soon to prove quite hollow and misleading: as hollow and misleading as all his previous statements and assurances. I boarded the plane and responded to the CU - MSIH administrator's deranged statement when I finall arrived in New York City.
Touch down JFK airport, New York City on a cold November morning. My parents drove out to pick me up from the airport. Despite being extremely worn out, exhausted and now jet lagged I still remember feeling the energizing rush of joy when I saw my parents' faces among the crowd congregating near the arrivals terminal. They were quite shaken after watching the war unfold on all the television news feeds. They were relieved and full of joy to see me back alive and in one piece. They were also shocked with the CU - MSIH dangerous incompetence and irresponsibility. Sadly, what was rapidly becoming a CU - MSIH nightmare was about to take a turn for the worse. But more about that later ... Soon after arriving home, I responded to the deranged message I received from the CU - MSIH administrator with the following E-mail:
I just arrived in New York. My family is furious with the way
the MSIH
administration has handled (or rather the way it has not handled) this
situation. Your most recent email to me is a bit too much. Now you
claim to know about the school being up and running soon. I remember
talking with you on Thursday morning last week after a whole night of
rocket attacks asking you whether I should evacuate from Be'er Sheva or
not. You reassured me that the calls I received to evacuate from people
around me were just expressions of empathy and that you would alert me
if there was a real need to flee. I remained in Be'er Sheva for another
night until friends from class and from the area told me that I should
evacuate as soon as possible. I left on Friday afternoon without
hearing from you as the situation became incredibly dangerous. The way
this situation has been handled by the administration was irresponsible
and scandalous. Not only did you not have a plan but you inflated a
false sense of security by not urging people to evacuate in a timely
way. Instead mild hints and suggestions were dropped while a state of
war was rapidly evolving. My own direct question about evacuating was
played down. This was irresponsible and dangerous. It also destroyed
the trust that I had for the administration in terms of dealing with
the security situation and providing guidance during such times. Once
again: Please let me know if/when the administration comes up with a
serious and reasonable plan for the academic cycle. Stay safe and
please do not send me any more preposterous Emails like the following:
"Sorry to hear you're leaving us, especially as I know we'll
be up and
running again within a few days – which is how it always happens.
Take care."
Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2012
As soon as I got home I also called the CU - MSIH office in New York City and requested an immediate meeting with representatives of the program in Columbia University. I wanted to know if the CU - MSIH administration in New York was aware of the disaster and scandal which occured with CU - MSIH in Be'er Sheva. Would anyone be held responsible or accountable for what happened so the same catastrophe was not repeated? I wanted to know what the CU - MSIH administration in Columbia University planned to do about the semester which was effectively derailed and if they would at least now implement some contingency planning for when (not if) the next round of hostilities erupted in the future. The meeting was scheduled for a week or two after my arrival due to the sudden passing of a member of the CU - MSIH administration in New York. In the meantime, however, the CU - MSIH administration was about to inform the students about another academic shocker ... The CU - MSIH administration announced that it would cancel all the remaining classes for the semester and the material would be “self-studied” by the students with final exams scheduled at the end of December.
A helter-skelter plan was slapped together by the administration to complete the material via Skype or YouTube. Again more insult was added to injury by the CU - MSIH administration and further shock administered to the students. Who in the world would come up with an idea to hold medical school classes on Skype or YouTube?! I believe the comical euphemism the CU - MSIH administration coined for this hustle was "distance learning". There was a very significant amount of material to finish in the classes while most of my books and all of my notes remained in Be'er Sheva. I pleaded multiple times with CU - MSIH administration for a proper conclusion of the semester and a resumption of classes after the New Year. I even suggested sacrificing the summer in order to conduct a proper semester. Most importantly, I also asked if proper contingency planning would now be put in place for future hostilities in Gaza. The administration, despite all protests, clung to its cynical "distance learning" and "self-study" plan with final exams scheduled at the end of December. I was already starting to crash from the adrenaline pumped journey home and the harrowing stress of seeing my academic/career plans disintegrate: I spiked a major fever. In fact, I became seriously ill twice during the month of December. I sent the following E-mail to both branches of the CU - MSIH administration (New York City and Be'er Sheva):
Dear All,
Once the adrenaline rush subsided after my safe arrival in New York, I
caught a cold and spiked a fever. I woke up this morning with a massive
headache and to yet more sad and surreal news about the passing of Ms.
Cooper. This all just seems like a bad dream. I am writing this letter
in response to the suggested date for examinations and
“self-study”/skype mediated conclusion of our classes for the semester.
I do not see this as a reasonable solution to the difficult situation
which has been imposed upon us all by the insane realities of war. A
reasonable solution would be to freeze the academic process until after
the New Year and pick up exactly where we left off with our classes and
all other activities. I am willing to sacrifice my summer in order to
ensure a reasonable resumption and conclusion of the academic cycle. I
am not, however, willing to throw myself into an unreasonable and
self-destructive plan to wrap up the semester with skype and exams on
the 28th of next month. All of my books and notebooks are in Be'er
Sheva
and I do not intend to conclude the classes using skype or youtube. I
wish everyone strength and health during these tough times and I hope
my suggestions are taken into consideration.
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2012
My E-mail was disregarded by both branches of the CU - MSIH administration. However, the day of the meeting with the CU - MSIH representatives in their New York City office at 630 West 168th Street finally arrived. On that day, just when I thought I had seen and heard it all as far as the CU - MSIH administrative arrogance was concerned, I heard more outrageous statements about the handling of this situation. All of a sudden an all too pathetic litany of analogies to hurricanes and floods was thrown at me in the conference room. A most pitiful effort was made by the CU - MSIH representatives to do the equivalent of trying to convince me that the moon was made of cheese. The CU - MSIH New York City representatives clung to their fig leaf notions that all was handled appropriately by CU - MSIH administrators in Be'er Sheva, that this was just the way things went in Israel (any self-respecting Israeli would be deeply insulted by that assertion: Israel cultivates a strong culture of discipline, preparedness and planning) and that "distance learning" and "self-study" would be implemented as a way to conclude the semester. When I asked about future contingency planning, I was given a ridiculous answer about discussing the matter at a session of the student council! My jaw almost dropped when I heard that. I then asked why it was that simple American foreign exchange programs with Ben Gurion University had proper contingency planning in place (described on this page earlier) during the war while CU - MSIH (a medical school) had absolutely nothing in place for its students.
For asking that question I was told that I was behaving like "a difficult patient" by a senior representative of CU - MSIH in New York City. Those were the exact words of this senior representative of CU - MSIH in New York City: a woman who happens to hold an M.D. degree. How cruel, callous and insulting: shame indeed. So, during the meeting all my requests for a proper conclusion of the semester were dismissed, my complaints and questions were greeted with arrogance and hostility and there was no talk about any contingency plan on the part of the CU - MSIH administration in case of future hostilities in Southern Israel. Outrageously, the CU - MSIH administration claimed that it handled the situation effectively and that this incident was unexpected much like a hurricane was unexpected in New York. Well, the trouble with this unreasonable assertion is that Be'er Sheva is in Southern Israel while New York is not in the Caribbean. A tropical hurricane or perhaps Godzilla would be quite unexpected in New York but rocket fire from Gaza is NOT unexpected in Be'er Sheva. Hence the air defense systems on the periphery and air-raid sirens installed throughout the city! Be'er Sheva comes under rocket fire on a regular basis. For a program in Southern Israel which calls itself an "American style medical school" and which recruits mostly American students to not have contingency planning for when the rocket fire reaches levels of high intensity is completely scandalous and inexcusable. For the CU - MSIH administration to then claim that all was handled appropriately when in fact the medical program imploded due to blatant negligence and incompetence of the CU - MSIH administration is absolutely shameless.
Screams,
shrills and deaf ears: another CU-MSIH student's dealings with the
CU-MSIH administration.
Confronted with a total collapse of CU - MSIH academic standards and with what at that point became a flagrant hustle and a scam on the part of the CU - MSIH administration, I was forced to mail a formal letter to the New York CU - MSIH office terminating my relationship with the program and requesting a refund of the loans collected in my name. I simply could not make concessions to CU - MSIH administrators who were rapidly and very aggressively turning the process of medical studies into a fly by night circus. Not only was the program in complete breach of contract and violation of fiduciary responsibility to its students, it also soon turned out that what the CU - MSIH administration was so viciously pushing forward was actually ILLEGAL. Two weeks after I was forced to withdraw from the program, the federal authorities in Washington D.C. slammed down the CU - MSIH "distance learning" and "self-study" hustle. It turned out that it was a major violation of U.S. federal law for a foreign school to collect federal funds (U.S. federal loans) and not deliver the required class hours: U.S. Federal Regulations at 34 C.F.R., Subpart E, 600.51(d)(1)(4).
While I was arguing for decent academic standards and a return to normal classes with the CU - MSIH administration in New York, these administrators already knew that they were doing something completely fraudulent. In fact, the CU - MSIH administration actually (by its own admission) sent an attorney to Washington D.C. in order to bypass or bend U.S. federal law: this illicit CU - MSIH maneuver failed. The U.S. department of education slammed down the illegal and immoral CU - MSIH plan of completing medical school classes with YouTube, Skype and "self-study". Essentially, the CU - MSIH administration planned to cancel teaching hours, collect U.S. federal loan funds and reduce medical education to an unethical, ham-fisted administrative hustle. Who in their right mind would ever agree to complete medical studies using Skype or Youtube? This, however, was what the CU - MSIH administration wanted to force on its students and to which I objected vociferously. CU - MSIH was pushing forward with a plan which was illegal according to the United States federal law and completely insane by anyone's measure.
Finally, there came another CU - MSIH kicker and a good one at that!
Having met with the CU - MSIH administrators in New York City and
realized that there was no appetite for reason or dignity in the
CU - MSIH offices at 630 West 168th Street, I then
contacted the office of the president of Columbia
University.
Surely, when informed of such a scandal and catastrophe involving a
program which bore the official seal of the mighty Columbia University,
the president himself
would
immediately spring into action and put an end to this unbridled CU -
MSIH
administrative misbehavior. After all, the reputation of his university
was being
actively tarnished and in such scandalous ways by the CU - MSIH
administration. I was certain that the president of Columbia University
would not stand
for such
atrocities being perpetrated in his school's name. I informed the
office of the president of Columbia
University (addressing all communiques directly to the president) of
all the details pertaining to the recent CU - MSIH disaster and
requested
a meeting with the president of the university or with his
representative. After a protracted initial silence and much stalling a
representative from the president's office finally offered to discuss
the
matter with me. The day was set and we were about to agree on the time
when the president's office suddenly clammed up and refused any further
communication.
Apparently the Columbia University's president's office realized that the CU - MSIH disaster exposed the university to serious legal consequences and a public relations nightmare. A letter was dispatched from the Columbia University legal counsel stating that the now disgraced CU - MSIH administrators in Be'er Sheva would be the designated entities to deal with as far as the CU - MSIH scandal was concerned. In order to deflect responsibility and liability for the CU - MSIH nightmare, the Columbia University administration decided to designate CU - MSIH as a leper case and push the matter as far away from itself as possible. To extend a modicum of empathy to the Columbia University administration: I understand and if I were running Columbia University I would also feel a deep shame for what happened. However, Columbia University must cease acting like it has no connection to CU-MSIH and take responsibility for the program to which it is directly and indisputably linked. Before the law such deflections of responsibility do not stand and only cast a dark shadow on the moral standing of Columbia University. In fact, it is before the law that this matter is presently being straightened out: a real pity that it had to come to this.
But it gets worse ...
Having traveled back to Be'er Sheva during the month of January, 2013 in order to collect my belongings and to tie up all remaining loose ends, I returned to the United States after a lengthy stay in Israel. I learned some grim details concerning the fate of the students who decided not to object to the CU - MSIH hustle (exams with no classes being completed) and who returned to the program without a proper conclusion of the semester. They were rushed into final exams without the classes/hour requirements being completed. One exam (microbiology) was cancelled completely with the material to be tested at some point in the future. This after the students, including myself at the end of November, worked incredibly hard to prepare themselves for this microbiology test. There was no explanation from the CU - MSIH administration about what happened during the Gaza war; not a peep. As if nothing aberrant had taken place at all since the end of November when the entire semester was derailed due to CU - MSIH administrative irresponsibility and lack of planning.
The
bitter truth: another
CU-MSIH student tells it like it is.
There was no talk of a future plan if the situation repeated itself. One former classmate failed four finals with the next semester starting the next day. Histology alone had a long string of failures. Other classes accumulated further disasters. The students are muzzled and intimidated by the administration. They are afraid for their spots in school and additionally intimidated because the people running the CU - MSIH program are the same people who will be writing the residency application letters for the students in the future. I ran into some students from the program on the street in Be'er Sheva and they looked chewed out and dispirited. One former classmate barely recognized me on the sidewalk and looked completely dazed. My father was with me for that encounter and he could not believe it himself. Truly, it all resembled Lewis Carrol's terrifying story of The Walrus and The Carpenter. The appropriate analogies are clearly discernible.
While I was in Be'er Sheva, a friend of mine from the program told me how one of the co-directors of CU - MSIH (at a recent function to which some of the students were invited) had a few drinks and stated that international health amounted to nothing more than cholera and diarrhea (the program is of course called The Medical School for International Health). This was the same co-director who waxed poetic about the nuanced higher callings of global health during our physician's oath ceremony. I did not know what to say: the cynicism was so stark. The students were quietly starting to ask where their money was going in this program. While I was in Israel a letter was sent via FedEx to my address in New York City from the CU - MSIH administration in answer to the final letter I sent to them. I read the correspondence when I arrived back home. The CU - MSIH administration referred to the current state of affairs in the program as a "return to routine" and my experiences as an inaccuracy and exaggeration. It appears that there really is no limit to the arrogance, indecency and duplicity within the ranks of the CU - MSIH administration. Never in my life have I dealt with a scam and hustle of this magnitude. This would all be terribly funny if it were not so terribly sad.
- - AND THAT IS ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT - -
FOR MORE
INFORMATION CONTACT: MEDICALSCHOOLCATASTROPHE@YAHOO.COM
** All affiliates or representatives of the
Columbia University - Medical School for International Health
administration are asked not
to send
any communiques to the E-mail address above. Should such entities
demand any further information, they are kindly asked
instead to
contact the attorney who currently represents the author in the ongoing
legal process involving Columbia University - Medical School for
International Health. **