Re: 9/9/00 - The saga of Steven Schwartzberg; The ex-professor who claims that John Gaddis killed Suzanne Jovin '99 is still in New Haven, and wants his old job back.
The saga of Steven Schwartzberg
The ex-professor who claims that John Gaddis killed Suzanne Jovin '99 is still in New Haven, and wants his old job back.
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BY TIM R. A. COOPER
YDN Staff Reporter
Published 9/9/00
As he leaned forward in a booth at Yorkside Pizza and Restaurant late Wednesday night, Steven Schwartzberg GRD '96 chuckled.
It had been months since his appointment as assistant professor in the history department and director of undergraduate studies for International Studies came to an end. Schwartzberg is still in New Haven, staying at a local hotel, lobbying Yale to get his job back. He knows that people -- students and faculty alike -- have quietly been talking about him and the circumstances surrounding his departure from the University.
"How gossip travels at Yale is one of the most mysterious things in the world," he observed.
But there is little mystery why the gossip Schwartzberg spawned with his June e-mail to IS majors has spread.
After all, his e-mail makes the brow-raising claim that John Lewis Gaddis, one of Yale's star professors and one of the world's preeminent Cold War historians, is responsible for one of the most notorious crimes in Yale's history: the tragic December 1998 murder of Suzanne Jovin '99.
The Jovin slaying remains unsolved, and the only official suspect is former political science lecturer James Van de Velde. Schwartzberg insists that on the night Jovin was killed, he saw Gaddis near the spot where Jovin was last seen alive. Furthermore, Schwartzberg said he believes he has recognized a pattern which links Gaddis to the murder.
Gaddis, who is spending this year as a visiting scholar at Britain's Oxford University, flatly denies Schwartzberg's claims. The University has labeled Schwartzberg's suspicions "groundless." The police investigated his claims briefly, and apparently did not find sufficient cause to pursue the Gaddis lead. Though Schwartzberg says he has always maintained his claims, the University says he retracted his accusations on two occasions. For all intents and purposes, Schwartzberg stands alone with his accusations.
"I can only express incredulity, amazement, and puzzlement that he has persisted," Gaddis said of Schwartzberg's claims. "I never knew or had a class with Suzanne."
Until recently, Schwartzberg had been following a reasonably normal academic career path at Yale. He came as a graduate student in the early nineties, became a teaching assistant and an honors doctoral graduate, taught at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas for two years, and returned to Yale as an assistant professor in 1998.
At Yale, Schwartzberg was employed on a year-to-year, contract-to-contract basis.
Schwartzberg's suspicions are built upon his recollection of a series of events involving Gaddis which he said forms a "larger pattern." Despite having little evidence aside from his unconfirmed witnessing of Gaddis the night of the murder, Schwartzberg stands by his claims.
One event Schwartzberg recalls was a discussion held at Gaddis' home days after the Jovin murder. Periodically, members of the History department and some graduate students participate in a critical discussion over a work of history. In the particular discussion cited by Schwartzberg, the book was Simon Schama's "Dead Certainties," in which a Harvard professor is suspected and then convicted of murdering an undergraduate.
The timing and the tenor of the discussion left Schwartzberg "feeling queasy for reasons I could not identify at the time."
An article Gaddis penned for an April 1999 Atlantic Monthly issue contained a section entitled "A Tenacious Affinity for Killing," furthering suspicions in Schwartzberg's mind. Schwartzberg said he then recalled seeing Gaddis wearing a dark hood on the corner of Chapel and College Streets on the night of the murder. He said he is unsure about some details, like whether the hooded figure tried to get his attention.
"Remembering a relatively high-pitched male voice, from someone taller than I am, with a high forehead and a bit of yellowish-gray hair visible over that forehead, and with a distinctly square shaped jaw, I have no doubt I saw John Gaddis on 4 December 1998," Schwartzberg wrote in his e-mail.
Schwartzberg went to the police with his suspicions on April 15, 1999. Rumors of Schwartzberg's accusations began circulating in the History department in the spring of 1999.
But matters became public in May 9 of that year, when Schwartzberg posted a message on the H-DIPLO website, a discussion board for diplomatic historians. The message described the incident involving the "Dead Certainties" book and made references to Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" in insinuating that Gaddis may have been responsible for Jovin's murder.
Four days later, H-DIPLO's editorial board permanently removed the post and apologized to Gaddis and the list's users, saying Schwartzberg's message contained "outlandish, offensive, and grossly inappropriate speculation." Though Schwartzberg denies it, sources claim Schwartzberg formally withdrew the statements he made on H-DIPLO.
By then, Schwartzberg's contract had been renewed by the department for another year. In August 1999, Schwartzberg's lawyer sent a letter on his behalf which indicated that he withdrew his statements of the spring of 1999. Schwartzberg said that he did that for legal reasons only, and that he maintained his position despite the letter.
In December 1999, a year after the murder, the police questioned Gaddis in his office for a few minutes. Apparently satisfied with the results of the questioning, they did not pursue Gaddis any further.
As the months dragged on, and with Schwartzberg's one-year contract nearing its end, History department sources said the University began informing Schwartzberg that his contract would not be extended.
Events came to a head in the spring of 2000, when Schwartzberg met with History Chair Jon Butler. Butler would not comment on the meeting, but sources within the department said it became confrontational, with Schwartzberg demanding that his contract be renewed. Schwartzberg said he recalled the conversation with Butler as "unpleasant," as the history chair explained that the department was reducing its role in the IS major. Schwartzberg said he suggested that Butler change his mind.
Shortly after Schwartzberg's encounter with Butler, the Yale police began regularly posting an officer in front of the Hall of Graduate Studies. Sources said the officer was there to ensure that if there was any sign of violent altercation in the department, it could be controlled effectively and quickly.
Yale Chief of Police James Perrotti acknowledged that he had told his campus patrol staff to be alert about the Schwartzberg situation, but he would not elaborate any further.
Schwartzberg then met with Provost Alison Richard, Yale's chief academic and financial officer. Sources said that in the meeting, which Schwartzberg recalled as "ambiguous," the provost made it clear that Schwartzberg's contract would not be renewed for the 2000-2001 academic year.
Sources said the History department sent Schwartzberg letters at his New Haven home informing him that his contract was not renewed, and that he would no longer teach.
But Schwartzberg said that he never received any such written notice, and that his conversations with Butler and Richard left his employment situation ambiguous.
Schwartzberg said he recalled Butler's position as "wishy-washy," and that he in fact expected the chair to extend the appointment.
"There was never a communication with him that was a point-blank 'no,'" Schwartzberg said.
The Yale administration paints a less ambiguous picture of Schwartzberg's appointment.
"There was a series of exchanges throughout the spring semester with Mr. Schwartzberg," Richard said. "It was a one-year appointment that came to an end, and that is the end of the matter."Over the summer of 2000, Schwartzberg sent a now infamous e-mail to IS majors which contained a letter he wrote to Yale President Richard Levin explaining the Gaddis allegations and requesting reinstatement. Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead sent a message to those IS majors, making it clear that "the University repudiates Mr. Schwartzberg's charges in the strongest possible terms."
Some in the History department have privately suggested that Schwartzberg may be mentally unwell.
"If I'm mad now, I was mad as a graduate student, I was mad as a TA, and I was mad when I was teaching at UNLV," Schwartzberg said. "If I'm mad now, I have been mad for a very long time."
Schwartzberg wants his job back, and he remains in New Haven lobbying Yale to reconsider. He said he believes it is his "right" to be reappointed DUS, on the basis of his academic, administrative and teaching work, and that he would have been renewed were it not for his accusations against John Gaddis. But it looks as though his reappointment may never happen.
"There is no appeal process for appointments that are terminated," Richard said.
Nonetheless, Schwartzberg perseveres. He said he feels "keenly" that he is in the right on the Gaddis matter, and that it is his obligation to stand up for what he believes.
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