An associate professor at SIU Carbondale claims she was denied a promotion in the Psychology Department due to racial discrimination.
Tawanda Greer-Medley filed the complaint on Dec. 24 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois against the Board of Trustees of Southern Illinois University.
The defendant is described as a “body politic and corporate of the State of Illinois which has its primary office in Carbondale, Jackson County, Illinois and was created to manage each campus within the SIU system including the Carbondale campus where plaintiff was employed,” the suit states.
According to the complaint, Greer-Medley is a black female who was hired as a tenure track assistant professor in the psychology department at the University of South Carolina in 2005. In 2011, she was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor. During her employment with the University of South Carolina, SIU allegedly recruited her “because of SIU’s need for racial diversity.”
“Even though plaintiff never sought a position with SIU in December 2014, plaintiff was offered a position with SIU as a tenure track associate professor in the Department of Psychology,” which is within the College of Liberal Arts, the suit states.
Greer-Medley accepted the offer and began working with SIU in August 2015. She was due for a mandatory tenure review during the 2018-2019 academic year. She also claims she went up for promotion to full professor at the same time. She claims Interim Dean of COLA, Dr. Andrew Balkansky, recommended her for tenure but not for promotion, citing her low annual publication record. Had she been promoted, her salary would have increased approximately $1,200 per month, she claims.
Greer-Medley alleges a white associate professor with a publication record that was less than the plaintiff’s went up for promotion. The suit indicates that the other professor was awarded the promotion.
Greer-Medley claims that when she challenged the denial of her promotion request, SIU asserted additional reasons that were not requirements for promotion.
“A motivating reason for SIU’s denial of Greer-Medley’s promotion was because of her race. SIU’s “other reasons” were pretextual.
“SIU did not apply a consistent standard for promotion for black associate professors and white associate professors seeking promotions to full professors,” the suit states.
Greer-Medley alleges the defendant applied a “more favorable” promotion standard to white associate professors.
As a result, Greer-Medley alleges she suffered stress, anguish, humiliation and loss of enjoyment of life. She also claims she sustained substantial economic losses.
She seeks a judgment in her favor for unspecified damages, including back pay and benefits, front pay and benefits, compensatory damages, attorney’s fees, court costs and any other damages necessary damages.
She is represented by Shari Rhode of Rhode Law Firm in Carbondale.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois case number 3:20-cv-1369