Through November, 2005, the students commiserated about their predicament. They grimly noted that, in addition to being their friend, Dr. Goodwin was the gatekeeper to their future professional lives. What would happen to that gate if they blew the whistle on her? Then there was the rest of the department, which slowly, ever so gently, was closing ranks. The students felt shunned. They had trouble sleeping. One stopped eating and lost 15 pounds. Clinically depressed? Suffering anxiety attacks? Seeking professional medical help? Crawling under their desks to sleep at mid-day? Taking pills to sleep and pills to wake up? And all for what?

Still, Mary Allen would not give up on Goodwin. She tried to rationalize Goodwin’s behavior. If you do not show the strongest results possible, you will not get the grant. This thought did not seem to excuse the professor’s behavior. Allen was reminded of a central tenet of her belief system, that you should do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If Betsy wins the grant, then many honest applicants will not win it. Keeping silent did not seem consistent with the Golden Rule.

In a wrenching decision reached after weeks of prayer, Mary Allen finally abandoned her mentor. She came along side the five other students. “I was only able to do it,” she concludes, “because of the strength of my religious convictions.“