A Vietnamese-American former executive assistant to the law school dean at the University of Texas has lost her appeal in a suit alleging racial discrimination.
Chrystie Nguyen failed to provide sufficient evidence that her job transfer and the later nonrenewal of her contract resulted from racial bias, the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled. The decision upholds a lower-court ruling in favor of the law school.
According to the decision, Nguyen was hired as then-Dean Larry Sager’s executive assistant in 2006 and was transferred in 2008 to the law school’s Continuing Legal Education Department. There, she was designated special projects coordinator, a position created for her, and she was allowed to telecommute two days a week.
However, her new superiors “quickly began expressing dissatisfaction with Nguyen’s work performance,” including lack of progress on her projects, the decision said. They assigned her different duties and revoked her telecommuting projects.
Then in 2010, the law school didn’t renew her appointment and discontinued the special projects coordinator position.
In a unanimous opinion, the three-judge appeals panel said Nguyen failed to demonstrate that either she was treated less favorably than “similarly situated employees who were not members of her protected class” or that she was discharged based on race.
