OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - A deaf medical school student who won a discrimination lawsuit against Creighton University must finish out his last two years of class on the Omaha campus where he experienced the discrimination.
A federal judge ruled last year that Creighton must provide Michael Argenyi with special equipment and interpreters to allow him to finish his last two years of medical school. Argenyi had requested he be able to finish at the Phoenix, Ariz., campus, but Creighton said it was full and a judge recently backed the school’s rejection.
Argenyi, who has been deaf since infancy, does not know sign language, relying instead on “cued speech,” which uses hand signals to distinguish sounds that appear the same on a speaker’s lips.
As an undergraduate student, Argenyi used a system that transcribes spoken words into text on a computer screen and a cued speech interpreter to graduate in 2008 with a 3.87 GPA.
But Creighton’s medical school refused to provide him with those aids, instead using a microphone system that emitted frequencies to be picked up by Argenyi’s cochlear implants. Argenyi said the system was inadequate, and one doctor determined it actually reduced Argenyi’s ability to understand his professors.
Argenyi took out more than $110,000 in loans to pay for the assistance himself, but said he was forced to take a leave of absence in his third year when the university refused to allow him to have an interpreter to interact with clinical patients - even if he paid for it himself.
The university argued that Argenyi shouldn’t be using interpreters in the real world and that an interpreter could violate doctor-patient confidentiality. Argenyi sued, and in December, U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp ordered that Creighton must provide him with the transcribing system and interpreters; she didn’t require the university to reimburse Argenyi.
The ink had hardly dried on that order before the two sides were back in court. Argenyi argued Creighton’s refusal to admit him to the Phoenix program constituted retaliation by the school, and Creighton insisted it treated Argenyi “like any other student who took a leave of absence.”
Argenyi said in an affidavit that placement in Phoenix would give him a fresh start away from Omaha, “where I experienced discrimination during my first two years of medical school, and where the faculty who testified against me at trial teach.”
But Creighton said the only way to assign Argenyi to the Phoenix campus “would be to tell a student who had already been selected to go to Phoenix that he or she couldn’t go, and that’s patently unfair,” Creighton attorney Scott P. Moore said.
The judge ruled March 3 that Creighton does not have to assign Argenyi to the Phoenix campus, meaning Argenyi will resume medical school this fall in Omaha.
He needn’t worry about being subjected to discrimination when he does, Moore said.
“The medical school welcomes him back,” Moore said.
However, Moore said, Creighton is still mulling whether to appeal the judge’s ruling on providing the translation system and interpreters.
Argenyi’s lead attorney, Mary Vargas, declined to comment Thursday.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.