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Latest Cases & Developments
Date:
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 EmploymentDate:
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 DiscriminationDate:
U.S. Dep.’t of Education Regulatory Agenda for Spring 2023—Shared Ancestry & Ethnicity(June 13, 2023)
U.S. Department of Education Uniform Regulatory Agenda for Spring 2023. The filing indicates that the Department of Education plans to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in December 2023 to amend its regulations implementing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to address harassment and other discrimination based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics. The filing notes that “OCR has received complaints of harassment and assaults directed at Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and other students based on their shared ancestry or ethnicity.”
Topics:
Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Race and National Origin Discrimination
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