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  • Date:

    Denton v. Bd. of Governors for the State Univ. Sys. of Fla. (N.D. Fla. Jan. 24, 2024)

    Order granting Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss. Plaintiffs, students at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), on behalf of themselves and a putative class of “all Black students at FAMU at any time during the 2021/2022 school year through the date of class certification,” brought Title VI and the Equal Protection claims against the University and the State of Florida, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief only, alleging both intentional discrimination and a failure to dismantle patterns of discrimination dating to Florida’s system of de jure segregation before Brown v. Board of Education. In granting defendants’ motion to dismiss, though the court noted differences in funding and graduation and retention rates, it held that plaintiffs’ alleged facts were insufficient to show that disparate State funding, including land-grant funding, and overlap or duplication of program offerings between FAMU and Florida’s other state universities were traceable to de jure segregation or intentional discrimination.

    Topics:

    Constitutional Issues | Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Equal Protection | Race and National Origin Discrimination

  • Date:

    U.S. Dep.’t of Education RFI on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Needs in Higher Education (Jan. 26, 2024)

    U.S. Department of Education Request for Information (RFI) on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Needs in Higher Education. The Department seeks “information, research, and suggestions regarding supporting student mental health and/or substance use disorder (behavioral health) needs” including examples of effective practices or supports from State higher education agencies, as well as potential challenges to designing solutions. Comments are due on or before February 25, 2024.

    Topics:

    Campus Police, Safety, & Crisis Management | Disability Discrimination | Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Distressed & Suicidal Students

  • Date:

    Porter v. Bd. of Trs. of N.C. State Univ. (U.S. Jan. 22, 2024)

    Order denying petition for certiorari. Plaintiff, a tenured professor in the College of Education at North Carolina State University, brought First Amendment retaliation claims against the University, University officials, and multiple colleagues after he was removed from a student advising role in the program and assigned an additional course to teach due to his lack of collegiality in criticizing efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the School and the field. Previously, the Fourth Circuit affirmed dismissal, finding that his comments to colleagues about department operations were unprotected and that he failed to establish a causal connection between a blog post attacking a professional association as “woke” and his removal, in part due to lack of temporal proximity. In its Order List, the Supreme Court denied certiorari without comment.   

    Topics:

    Constitutional Issues | Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | First Amendment & Free Speech | Retaliation

  • Date:

    Doe v. Butler Univ. (S.D. Ind. Jan. 22, 2024)

    Order denying Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss. Plaintiffs, four female student-athletes at Butler University in cases now consolidated, sued the University, its athletics director, and an athletic trainer, alleging that the trainer sexually abused them. In denying the University’s motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction under Indiana’s Medical Malpractice Act – which requires review by an administrative medical review panel – the court ruled that the state law could not alter federal jurisdiction and that the Act was irrelevant since allegations of sexual abuse are not properly cognized as assertions of inadequate medical care. The court also permitted plaintiffs’ negligent supervision claim to proceed against the athletics director, finding that under Indiana law a supervisor may also be liable for negligent supervision.   

    Topics:

    Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Employee Sexual Misconduct | Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration | Sex Discrimination | Tort Litigation

  • Date:

    Yao v. Oakland Univ. (6th Cir. Jan. 19, 2024) (unpub.)

    Opinion affirming summary judgment in favor of the University. Plaintiff, a former tenure-track assistant professor of nursing at Oakland University who is of Chinese national origin, brought discrimination and retaliation claims against the University after it cited her lack of peer-reviewed publications in denying her tenure. In affirming summary judgment in favor of the University on her discrimination claim, the Sixth Circuit found that plaintiff was not similarly situated to her closest comparator because the comparator had one published article and one designated at the “revise and resubmit” stage, whereas plaintiff only had one co-authored article published. In affirming summary judgment in favor of the University on her retaliation claim, the Sixth Circuit noted that plaintiff filed the claim she asserted as protected activity a month after the University notified her that her employment would end.   

    Topics:

    Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Faculty & Staff | Race and National Origin Discrimination | Retaliation | Tenure

  • Date:

    Simons v. Yale Univ. (D. Conn. Jan. 17, 2024)

    Order granting-in-part and denying-in-part Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment. Plaintiff, a tenured professor of medicine at Yale University, brought gender discrimination and contract claims against the University and multiple officials after he was removed from his positions as section chief and center director in 2014 for sexual harassment and from his endowed professorship in 2018, allegedly in the wake of negative publicity related to the earlier harassment allegations. In denying summary judgment on plaintiff’s gender discrimination claim, the court found, first, that plaintiff raised genuine issues as to whether removal from a named chair without a reduction in salary was an adverse action; and whether allegedly removing him from the chair without additional process so long after its first sanction, allegedly to avoid renewed negative publicity, demonstrated discriminatory animus. The court also found that the latter questions were sufficient to raise a question of pretext about the University’s asserted concern to respond adequately to negative sentiment within its medical school community. The court granted summary judgment in favor of the University on his contract claim, finding that although his position as professor was tenured, his endowed chair and positions as chief and director were at-will.   

    Topics:

    Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Employee Sexual Misconduct | Sex Discrimination | Sex Discrimination in Employment

  • Date:

    De Piero v. Pa. State Univ. (E.D. Pa. Jan. 11, 2024)

    Memorandum Opinion granting-in-part and denying-in-part Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss. Plaintiff, a former writing instructor at Penn State University’s Abington campus, brought discrimination and First Amendment retaliation claims against the University and multiple officials after he complained publicly about required antiracism and educational equity trainings, and then resigned when he was issued a performance expectations notice for disrupting another training. In dismissing plaintiff’s employment discrimination claim, the court held that reduced performance evaluations and the performance expectations notice were insufficient to support his claim of constructive discharge. Though the court noted that “[t]raining on concepts such as ‘white privilege,’ ‘white fragility,’ implicit bias, or critical race theory can contribute positively to nuanced, important considerations about how to form a healthy and inclusive working environment,” it permitted his hostile work environment claim to proceed, finding that his detailed assertions regarding multiple trainings he was allegedly required to attend in which race was discussed “with a constant drumbeat of essentialist, deterministic, and negative language” were sufficient to allege pervasive harassment. In dismissing his First Amendment retaliation claim, the court found that plaintiff’s challenges to the facilitators of the workshop for which he was issued a performance expectations notice were unprotected personal complaints rather than protected speech on matters of public concern.   

    Topics:

    Constitutional Issues | Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | First Amendment & Free Speech | Race and National Origin Discrimination

  • Date:

    Reid v. James Madison Univ. (4th Cir. Jan. 9, 2024)

    Opinion reversing dismissal and remanding for further proceedings. Plaintiff, a former speech instructor and debate team coach at James Madison University, brought Title IX discrimination and due process claims against the University and multiple officials after an investigation found her responsible for having a nonconsensual relationship with a student, alleging various procedural departures from the University’s Title IX policies and procedures. The district court granted summary judgment to the University, finding plaintiff’s claims time-barred because she sued more than two years after her Dean found her responsible for the violation. In reversing and remanding for further proceedings, the Fourth Circuit held for the first time that a Title IX employment discrimination claim becomes complete and present and, thus, that the claim accrues when the University makes clear that a determination of a policy violation is its official position. It then found that information accompanying the Dean’s determination letter also provided her with a deadline for filing an appeal with the Provost and that the University did not otherwise make clear that the Dean’s decision was its official position. Accordingly, it held that plaintiff’s claim accrued only when the Provost upheld the determination of responsibility.

    Topics:

    Constitutional Issues | Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Due Process | Employee Sexual Misconduct | Sex Discrimination

  • Date:

    Daywalker v. UTMB at Galveston (5th Cir. Jan. 9, 2024)

    Opinion affirming summary judgment in favor of the Defendant. Plaintiff, a former resident at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), brought sex and race discrimination claims and an FMLA retaliation claim against UTMB after she was placed on a remediation program for “lapses in professional behavior” in clinical documentation and timeliness and told she would need to repeat her third year when she returned from a four-month FMLA leave of absence. In affirming summary judgment in favor of UTMB on her failure-to-promote claim, the Fifth Circuit found that (1) plaintiff’s one asserted comparator had no issues with accuracy or timeliness and was not similarly situated and (2) she was unable to overcome the documented concerns of numerous faculty members to establish pretext. It further held that the “handful” of offensive statements, which she alleged were made “over the span of a few years” were insufficient to raise a question of hostile work environment or constructive discharge. In affirming summary judgment on her FMLA retaliation claim, the court found that she was unable to establish causation because the decision that she should repeat her third year was taken between when she requested a “leave of absence” and when her counsel requested that leave be converted to protected FMLA leave. The court also held that the magistrate judge did not err during discovery in ordering the redaction of identifying information from potential comparator evidence because medical residents are also students for the purposes of FERPA.

    Topics:

    Disability Discrimination | Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) | Privacy & Transparency | Race and National Origin Discrimination | Retaliation | Sex Discrimination | Sex Discrimination in Employment

  • Date:

    Johnson v. Bd. of Supervisors of La. State Univ. & Agric. & Mech. Coll. (5th Cir. Jan. 8, 2024)

    Opinion affirming summary judgment in favor of the University. Plaintiff, a former administrative coordinator in the Division of Animal Care at Louisiana State University, brought discrimination and retaliation claims against the University, alleging that (1) one of the University’s veterinarians made various inappropriate comments leading up to an incident in which he slapped her on the buttocks and (2) the University retaliated against her after she reported this harassment by temporarily assigning her to office in a storage room. In affirming summary judgment in favor of the University with respect to the incident itself, the Fifth Circuit found that the University took prompt remedial action by separating the two, directing the veterinarian to have no contact with plaintiff, and opening an investigation eleven days later. The court also affirmed the finding that there was insufficient evidence the University had notice of on-going harassing behavior to sustain pre-incident harassment claims, noting that (1) when an intern reported feeling uncomfortable as a result of the veterinarian’s questions, the behavior stopped once the University moved the intern to a new location and (2) a faculty member who was aware of the veterinarian’s inappropriate comments was not plaintiff’s supervisor and did not have disciplinary authority over the veterinarian. Finally, the court affirmed dismissal of the retaliation claim, absent evidence that pretext animated the University’s decision to separate plaintiff from the veterinarian by relocating her office to the storage room. 

    Topics:

    Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Race and National Origin Discrimination | Retaliation | Sex Discrimination | Sex Discrimination in Employment

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