A 44-year-old man is suing a Missouri university for $3 million after he was dumped from a graduate counselling program for lack of empathy.
David Schwartz received a "no credit" for his practical experience internship after receiving mostly A's and one C in his course work, said the lawsuit against Webster University in St. Louis.
Dr. Stacy Henning, director of the counselling centre at the university, is alleged to have used three taped counselling sessions to show that Schwartz he "would not make a good counsellor because he lacked empathy," the lawsuit claimed.
Judging empathy, Schwartz's lawyer, Albert Watkins, told the Star, "is an extraordinarily subjective assessment."
If empathy can be taught, Watkins said, the university had a duty to teach it to Schwartz. If it can't be taught, his supervisors should have disqualified him from the graduate course before he paid $77,000 for tuition, books and fees.
The lawsuit contends that an anonymous letter Schwartz wrote pointing out the problems created by a romance between two of his supervising faculty was the real reason he was kicked out in March.
Webster University declined to comment.
Schwartz, of University City near St. Louis, was working at a computer company call centre help desk before he enrolled in the graduate program, Watkins said.
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