Evolutionary biologist Colin Wright filed a lawsuit against Cornell University for allegedly using race-based hiring and discriminating against white qualified candidates.
“The vacancy listing was flawed and unlawful from the very start, as it was designed by DEI administrators seeking to maximize the ability of applicants to strictly fill the ‘diversity axis,’ free of competition from white candidates,” according to the lawsuit.
Dr. Wright alleged discrimination by Cornell in July 2025, before filing a complaint in August.
Dr. Wright stated that he applied for numerous positions in America in 2019 and 2020, including at Cornell in its Neurobiology and Behavior Department.
However, the biologist discovered that Cornell had searched for a faculty member in his field, evolutionary biology, and kept this secret.
Unearthed emails show that Cornell had every intention of using race for consideration:
A Department email from early December 2020 declared that in order to obtain a “diversity hire,” it allowed DEI administrators to create an interview list consisting of only “underrepresented minority scholars.”A mid-December Department email further stated that the DEI administrators had “focused especially on identifying candidates from some of the most underrepresented racial/ethnic groups” to create the pool of eligible candidates.Indeed, in a December 23, 2020, email, Department Chairman Jeremy B. Searle (“Searle Email”) admitted that Cornell was “trying to do something a little out of the ordinary” in its search for a “hoped-for diversity hire.”The Searle Email emphasized that the job search had been designed to eliminate any competition for this diversity hire: “[The Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion] is concerned about us having a Search dynamic. What we should be doing is inviting one person whom we have identified as being somebody that we would like to join our department and not have that person in competition with others.” (emphasis added).
Other emails included a spreadsheet that showed how a candidate satisfied the “diversity axis” qualification:
Of the top 25 candidates, all were listed as either black, Latina, LGBTQ, disability, American Indian, or Southeast Asian; not a single one had “white” listed by his or her name—and this was by design.To ensure that no whites would interfere with the “diversity axis,” Cornell intentionally kept the faculty job opening private, in violation of University Policy 6.6.1, which requires vacancies to be posted on the Working at Cornell website for at least five business days.
The lawsuit said that Cornell filled the position with one of the candidates listed in the “diversity axis.”
Wright listed his many accomplishments and qualifications, comparing both to the other candidates.
“Indeed, upon information and belief, there is no reason Dr. Wright would not have been hired for the position but for Cornell University’s discriminatory practices and intentional violation of its own policies,” the lawsuit claimed.
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