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Ex-MIT associate program director sues former NASA astronaut, university over alleged sex and race discrimination

A former Massachusetts Space Grant associate director claims that Jeffrey Hoffman degraded her, kept her from advancing in her career at MIT, and kept her from getting paid properly for her work.

Jeffrey Hoffman reads from the Torah aboard the space shuttle Columbia during a 1996 mission in space. NASA

July 12, 2023

5 minutes to read

A former associate program director at MIT is suing the university and a prominent aeronautics professor over alleged sex and race discrimination.

The federal lawsuit, filed July 5, claims that former NASA astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman, who is now a professor and director of the Massachusetts Space Grant program (MSG) at MIT, degraded the former MSG associate director, kept her from advancing in her career at MIT, and kept her from getting paid properly for her work.

The plaintiff, Raji Patel, is described in the lawsuit as being “a woman of Indian descent.” She worked at MIT for 20 years, beginning in 2002 and ending with her resignation in 2022.

“Unfortunately, throughout her employment at MIT, Professor Hoffman ran the program in a misogynistic and racially insensitive manner, creating and maintaining a hostile work environment for Ms. Patel that ultimately became unbearable and forced her resignation in November 2022,” the lawsuit reads.

Hoffman said in an email early Wednesday morning that he “absolutely” denies the allegations.

MIT said in a statement Tuesday night that as general practice, it doesn’t comment on pending lawsuits and personnel matters.

“However, MIT denies the allegations and intends to vigorously defend the Institute and Prof. Hoffman in court,” a spokesperson for the university said.

The alleged discrimination

The lawsuit breaks down the discrimination Patel allegedly endured into four categories. Firstly, it claims that Hoffman often subjected her to “tacit slights and insults” and treated her differently because of her race and gender.

“These slights and insults were often subtle but were pervasive and prevented Ms. Patel from being accepted as a valued member of the team,” the lawsuit reads.

Secondly, the lawsuit alleges that Hoffman created, implemented, and reinforced “role stereotypes” and restricted Patel’s participation in the workplace based on gender and race.

Thirdly, it claims Hoffman repeatedly devalued Patel, her opinions, and her role at MIT despite recognizing her as functioning at the level of a full director during a 2020 performance review.

“This purposefully prevented Ms. Patel from fulfilling her role as a Director at MIT, from being granted the status of a Director at MIT, and reaching her full potential at MIT,” the lawsuit reads.

Lastly, the lawsuit alleges that Hoffman “purposefully and wrongfully” prevented Patel from earning equitable pay and title designations while male colleagues were allowed to advance.

The lawsuit claims MIT and Hoffman violated the Equal Pay Act of 1963; Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlaws workplace discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin; and the accompanying Civil Rights Act of 1991. It asks that she be awarded damages.

Starting off on the wrong foot

When Patel started at MIT, the lawsuit says, she was more than qualified for the position of assistant director of the MSG, which is the Massachusetts component of the NASA Space Grant program.

Patel was a good fit to help lead the program, which advances aerospace research and education, having earned both an undergraduate degree in physics and a master’s degree in management from MIT, the lawsuit says.

Despite this, she allegedly started with a lower salary than her male predecessor.

“Thus, from the very start, Ms. Patel was subject to unlawful discrimination,” the lawsuit reads.

Even so, the lawsuit says, Patel “accepted the position in good faith and with the
hope that her hard work and achievement would pay off in the end.”

Patel’s contributions at MIT

From 2002 to 2021, it says, she executed all the responsibilities of a full-time director, which resulted in both the state government and NASA accepting MIT proposals. The funding from the awards benefitted over 4,000 students, according to the lawsuit.

Patel also advocated for the Space Grant program in Congress, along with other Space Grant program directors across the country, the lawsuit says, while Hoffman did not. This work helped save the program in 2018 after it was cut from President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, it says.

Patel became the go-to between government and the MSG, so much so that the Massachusetts congressional delegation believed she was the actual director of the program, the lawsuit says.

“Yet, throughout all this time, it was Professor Hoffman who solely retained the title of Director and refused to consider that Ms. Patel be afforded that title (or commensurate pay) at MIT, much less advocate on her behalf to be designated with that title,” the lawsuit reads.

“Professor Hoffman took these actions despite the fact that these actions were detrimental to the program and its goals. It is clear that Professor Hoffman’s decisions were made for discriminatory reasons rather than legitimate business reasons.”

Tensions begin to flare

In 2008, the lawsuit says, Hoffman allegedly refused her request to be named a program director but allowed her to informally use the title of “co-director.”

This allowed her to join the Space Grant Directors’ Alliance — an advocacy committee of Space Grant directors — but didn’t come with commensurate pay or respect at the university, according to the lawsuit.

“In essence, the informal use of the term co-Director simply allowed Ms. Patel to do Professor Hoffman’s work for him without any benefit to her,” the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit includes in excerpt from a 2020 performance review of Patel written by Hoffman to support its claims:

“The increasing demands of the MOXIE project have cut deeply into the time I can devote to Space Grant. Happily, Raji has picked up every bit of the slack and has kept Massachusetts Space Grant running smoothly. She has actually been functioning effectively as director and doing a great job.”

The issue comes to a head

In September 2021, Patel wrote a proposal which could not be submitted unless she was awarded full-time pay, the lawsuit says. Hoffman thus refused to submit the proposal and allegedly stepped up his discriminatory behavior toward her by openly contradicting and undermining her in meetings with NASA personnel and other Space Grant directors.

“These tactics were not only extremely demeaning to Ms. Patel as a woman and person of color, but hurt the program – leaving Ms. Patel to explain to NASA the contradictions created in the reports submitted by MIT,” the lawsuit reads.

As it became more and more necessary that Patel be named a director, the lawsuit says, she confronted Hoffman, saying that other women were directors within the Space Grant program. He allegedly responded by saying “that is not how we do it at MIT.”

The lawsuit claims MIT became aware of Hoffman’s efforts to stymie Patel’s advancement but also refused to grant her the title of director or increase her pay. At the same time, it says, the university benefited not just from her work, but from paying her a part-time salary while she performed full-time work.

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The lawsuit also includes an email from an MIT aerospace department head that was sent after Patel resigned that referenced her departure as such:

“We would be remiss not to acknowledge the ongoing issues of staff burnout, toxic workplace behavior, and sexist — even misogynistic — elements here and the role they played in the departure of another valued colleague.”

Who is Jeffrey Hoffman?

Hoffman holds three degrees, including a doctorate in astrophysics from Harvard University, according to his NASA bio page.

While a NASA astronaut from 1978 to 1997, he made five space flights, becoming the first astronaut to log 1,000 hours of flight time aboard the Space Shuttle, the bio page says. He performed four spacewalks, including the first unplanned, contingency spacewalk in NASA’s history and the initial repair and rescue mission for the Hubble Space Telescope.

After retiring as an astronaut, Hoffman spent four years as NASA’s European representative, the bio page says. He’s worked at MIT since 2001, is a deputy principal investigator of an experiment on NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, and is in the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.

You can read the full lawsuit below:

Discrimination Suit Against MIT and Prof. Jeffrey Hoffman by Susannah Sudborough on Scribd

Ex-MIT associate program director sues former NASA astronaut, university over alleged sex and race discrimination