Two longtime NYU medical professors are suing the school, claiming their salaries were slashed because they didn’t bring in enough grant money — even though their research data were destroyed during Hurricane Sandy.
Physiologist Dr. Marie Monaco — who has been a vocal opponent of the university’s loans for employee vacation homes — and biochemist Dr. Herbert Samuels, who has been at the university since 1970, say their labs were flooded in the storm because of NYU’s failure to protect the facilities.
The data “is the backbone of their research and critical to their ability to secure extramural funding,” the Manhattan civil suit says.
Still, the tenured professors were notified last spring of impending pay cuts. Monaco’s $167,646 salary will drop over the course of five years to $94,646 and Samuels’ $287,652 will go to $189,652 in that same period.
They want the court to overturn the cuts that start this fall.
Monaco, who was hired in 1980, says administrators are applying the policy in an “arbitrary and unequal fashion,” giving leeway to some colleagues who were affected by the storm while cracking down on others.
Monaco’s attorney, Katherine Hansen, said she’s concerned NYU is punishing her client for her outspoken opposition to questionable spending.
Her lab at the Langone Medical Center’s Veterans Affairs Hospital lost all of the refrigerated cells used for experiments when the power went out and there were no generators to preserve the materials.
“The loss of data has negatively impacted [Monaco and Samuels’] ability to secure extramural funding and will continue to make it difficult for them to secure grants for many years,” the suit says.
School policy dictates that 60 percent of professors’ salaries related to research must be covered by outside funds, according to the suit.
NYU spokeswoman Lisa Greiner said the policy started in 2008 “to bring its job performance requirements in line with other nationally recognized academic medical centers.”