Prof Sues U. Illinois Chicago, Alleging it Discriminated Against Him as a ‘White Male’
“It was very clear that he was not welcome there because of the color of his skin and the fact that he was a white male”
This professor apparently made the mistake of criticizing the school’s emphasis on race in their hiring practices.
The College Fix reports:
Professor sues U. Illinois, claims it discriminated against him as a ‘white male’
The Liberty Justice Center has filed a racial discrimination lawsuit alleging the University of Illinois Chicago fired a professor because he is a “white male” who criticized the institution’s racial hiring practices, according to the lead attorney on the case.
The lawsuit is on behalf of Professor Stephen Kleinschmit (pictured) “whose contract was terminated after he criticized the university’s racially discriminatory hiring programs,” a news release from the law firm states.
“It was very clear that he was not welcome there because of the color of his skin and the fact that he was a white male,” lead attorney Reilly Stephens told The College Fix in a recent phone interview.
Stephens said they fired Kleinschmit in August of 2023, and later posted a job opening in his department encouraging minority candidates to apply.
What’s more, “they let him go at a point in the year where it was basically impossible for him to find an equivalent job,” the attorney told The Fix.
Liberty Justice Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, law firm that seeks to protect fundamental rights, is seeking damages suffered as a result of his firing.
Kleinschmit was a clinical associate professor in the Department of Public Policy, Management, and Analytics when he “became concerned about the university’s fixation on race when interviewing and hiring faculty,” according to the news release.
He “quickly realized that multiple university programs were illegal under federal law because they regularly used race as a primary or even exclusive factor in hiring decisions.”
After speaking out against these practice, he received a notice that the public university had ended his contract, the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit also accuses university administrators of “purposely” waiting to notify him about his termination “until the academic hiring cycle was concluding, leaving him unemployed for an entire year.”
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“He quickly realized that multiple university programs were illegal under federal law because they regularly used race as a primary or even exclusive factor in hiring decisions.”
Using race as a primary factor in hiring decisions has been standard operating procedure in many, possibly most, colleges and universities for the past 20 years.
10 years ago I was on a hiring committee, and the President described how he wanted a “diversity” hire. I asked whether we would abide by the college’s “Nondiscrimination Statement” that was printed on all of their official handouts. They looked at me like I had just farted in a crowded elevator. I was lucky I didn’t get fired. And no, the top candidate (a white male) wasn’t even invited for an interview.