Cases & Developments - National Association of College and University Attorneys

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Date:
7/14/2023
Baptiste v. The City Univ. of N.Y. (S.D. N.Y. June 29, 2023)
Opinion and Order granting-in-part and denying-in-part Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss. Plaintiff, a former Chief Diversity Officer and ADA/504 Coordinator at the City College of New York (CCNY), brought discrimination and retaliation claims against the College and its President, alleging that her termination was in response to her support for reasonable accommodations, including one in which an individual allegedly suffered a medical emergency as a result of race-based harassment. The court permitted her retaliation claims to proceed, finding she had sufficiently alleged that her termination followed the day after she had recommended granting one of the accommodation requests. The court dismissed her discrimination claim, however, finding the allegation conclusory.
Topics:
Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Race and National Origin Discrimination | Retaliation
Date:
7/14/2023
Denham v. Ala. State Univ. (M.D. Ala. June 28, 2023)
Opinion & Order granting Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment. Plaintiff, a former professor of Occupational Therapy at Alabama State University who is a White female, brought discrimination claims against the University after she was not hired for an Associate Dean position. In granting summary judgment to the University, the court first held that plaintiff’s assertion that the successful candidate was unqualified for the position did not establish pretext, noting that although he had only one year of teaching experience the University’s faculty handbook permitted it to hire a candidate with less than five years of teaching experience at the rank of Associate Professor if that individual was deemed to have sufficient experience in a relevant field. The court further held that her assertion that the Provost’s explanation that the successful candidate “brought a lot of energy” to the interview also did not establish pretext, noting that the Provost also explained that he “spoke with ‘passion,’ particularly with respect to the role he could play as Associate Dean,” while plaintiff’s answer to why she wanted the position was “why not apply?”
Topics:
Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Race and National Origin Discrimination | Sex Discrimination | Sex Discrimination in Employment
Date:
7/14/2023
Jennings v. Frostburg State Univ. (D. Md. June 27, 2023)
Memorandum Opinion granting-in-part and denying-in-part Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment. Plaintiff, a former assistant professor of biology at Frostburg State University who is non-ambulatory, brought disability discrimination, retaliation, and failure to accommodate claims against the University after his contract was not renewed. The court permitted plaintiff’s disability discrimination claim to proceed, finding material questions about the extent to which members of his department believed student course evaluations, upon which their nonrenewal recommendation was largely based, reflected biases. The court also permitted his retaliation claim to proceed, finding material questions as to whether the Provost had intended to reverse the department’s nonrenewal recommendation prior to a meeting with a department official knew of plaintiff’s requests for accommodations. The court, however, dismissed plaintiff’s failure to accommodate claim for failure to exhaust administrative remedies.
Topics:
Disability Discrimination | Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Retaliation
Date:
7/14/2023
Ohio State Univ. v. Snyder-Hill (U.S. June 26, 2023)
Order denying petition for certiorari. Plaintiffs, who alleged they were among hundreds of male student-athletes at Ohio State University who were sexually abused over a period of many years beginning in 1978 by one-time athletic team doctor and university physician, brought Title IX claims against the University alleging that it was deliberately indifferent to the risk of the doctor’s abuse. Plaintiffs assert that the University forced the doctor to retire in 1998 but did not reveal the allegations against him. They further assert that when the doctor set up private practice near campus and advertised in the student newspaper, the University did not act to substantiate numerous additional complaints until 2018. The district court dismissed plaintiffs’ claims as time-barred, but the Sixth Circuit reversed and remanded, holding they had plausibly alleged sufficient grounds to delay accrual. In its June 26, 2023 Order List, the Supreme Court denied certiorari.
Topics:
Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Employee Sexual Misconduct | Sex Discrimination | Students | Title IX & Student Sexual Misconduct
Date:
7/14/2023
Kaczmarek v. D’Youville Coll. (W.D. N.Y. June 26, 2023)
Decision and Order granting-in-part and denying-in-part Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment. Plaintiff, a former professor of education and part-time archivist at D’Youville College who is a member of the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart and worked at the College since 1981, brought discrimination and retaliation claims against the College after it eliminated her positions citing declining enrollments. Plaintiff’s age discrimination claim failed because she failed to show that the College’s asserted enrollment decreases in its Education Department programs were pretextual or that decisions she alleged the College made to bring about those decreases were made with the intent to discriminate against her. The court, however, denied summary judgment on her claim as to her archivist position, finding a material question as to how the cited enrollment declines affected the archivist position housed in the library and a factual dispute as to whether a College official ever stated “the nun has to go.” Her claim that the College retaliated against her when it did not investigate her complaints to the Board of Trustees about her termination failed because those complaints were subsequent to her termination and did not inhibit her from filing a claim with the State Division of Human Rights.
Topics:
Age Discrimination | Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Religious Discrimination & Accommodation | Retaliation
Date:
7/14/2023
Doe v. Univ. of N. Tex. Health Sci. Ctr. (N.D. Tex. June 23, 2023)
Order and Opinion granting Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment. Plaintiff, a former medical student at the University of North Texas Health Science Center who was permitted to take a one-year medical leave of absence, brought due process and equal protection claims against multiple officials in their individual capacities after he was dismissed from the program for failure to meet the conditions for his return, even after multiple requests from the officials. The court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants on his due process claim, finding that though he claimed not to have received a hand-delivered letter outlining the conditions for his return, two email notices informing him that he faced dismissal and one informing him of his dismissal and opportunity for appeal provided sufficient notice and opportunity to be heard. The court similarly held that plaintiff’s equal protection claim failed because he did not identify a similarly situated non-disabled person who was treated differently after taking medical leave, failing to satisfy the conditions for return, and failing to respond to multiple notices in the dismissal process.
Topics:
Constitutional Issues | Disability Discrimination | Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Due Process
Date:
7/14/2023
Li v. Univ. of Akron (N.D. Ohio June 22, 2023)
Memorandum Opinion granting Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment. Plaintiff, a former tenured professor of educational philosophy at the University of Akron who identifies as Asian and or Taiwanese national origin, brought a race and national origin discrimination claim against the University after her position was eliminated in a campus-wide reduction in force (RIF). In granting summary judgment to the University, the court found that her prima facie case failed because the raw demographic data she provided showed that the percentage of Asians in the RIF was only marginally higher than that in the bargaining unit as a whole. The court also found that plaintiff failed to raise a question of pretext regarding the University’s stated reasoning that she was no longer affiliated with a program (as the Social/Philosophical Foundations of Education program had already been eliminated), her salary was among the highest in the School of Education, and she had limited versatility to teach courses required for licensure in the School’s remaining programs.
Topics:
Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Race and National Origin Discrimination
Date:
6/23/2023
Sch. Of the Ozarks, Inc. v. Biden (U.S. June 20, 2023)
Order denying petition for certiorari. Petitioner, the College of the Ozarks, sought declaratory and injunctive relief to block implementation of a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) memo interpreting the agency’s enforcement obligations in light of Bostock. The College argued that HUD’s enforcement priorities frustrated its ability to maintain single-sex residence halls, with room assignments made in accordance with sex assigned at birth, regardless of gender identity. The Eighth Circuit affirmed dismissal for lack of Article III standing. The College petitioned for certiorari, presenting the questions (1) “Whether a notice-and-comment violation, on its own, can establish Article III standing for a regulated entity within the applicable zone of interests, as the Fifth, Sixth, Ninth, D.C. and Federal Circuits have held, or whether an additional injury is required, as the Eighth Circuit held here[;]” and (2) “Whether a regulated entity has Article III standing to challenge an illegal regulation where the entity (a) arguably falls with the rule’s plain scope, and (b) there is a risk of enforcement.” The Court’s Order List denied certiorari without comment.
Topics:
Constitutional Issues | Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | First Amendment & Free Speech | Gender Identity & Sexual Orientation Discrimination | Religious Discrimination & Accommodation
Date:
6/23/2023
Bhatnagar v. The New Sch. (2nd Cir. June 20, 2023)
Order affirming summary judgment in favor of the University. Plaintiff, a former student in the Master of Fine Arts program at the Parsons School of Design at the New School, brought disability discrimination and contract claims against the University after it awarded him grades of C+ for thesis work and incomplete coursework and conferred his degree, rather than permit him a third year for addiitonal studies. The Second Circuit affirmed summary judgment in favor of the University on his disability discrimination claim, finding that although instructors believed he suffered from mental illness, their actions were based on other concerns, including accusations he made against faculty, potential disruptions to the next MFA class, his inability to complete his thesis, and his resistance to meeting with the Dean to discuss his situation. It affirmed summary judgment on his contract claim, finding that it was fundamentally a grading dispute and therefore non-cognizable under the educational malpractice doctrine.
Topics:
Academic Performance and Misconduct | Disability Discrimination | Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Students
Date:
6/23/2023
Kinnin v. Skidmore Coll. (2nd Cir. June 20, 2023)
Order affirming summary judgment in favor of the University. Plaintiff, a former Director of User Services in the IT Department at Skidmore College, alleged discrimination and retaliation after she was terminated following a series of conflicts with colleagues, in part memorialized in an investigative report that found she had “a history of subjecting certain of her employees to her wrath for unknown reasons.” The Second Circuit affirmed summary judgment in favor of the College, finding that she identified no evidence to show that the report or the Vice President’s decision to terminate her for poor performance and poor management were motivated by discriminatory animus.
Topics:
Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Retaliation | Sex Discrimination | Sex Discrimination in Employment

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