However, the judge threw out Dr. Roderick Neal’s allegations of racially disparate compensation and denial of due process.
Neal, who is African-American, joined the college in 2010 and received high job performance and student evaluations through 2014, according to Senior U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser. He also received a promotion appointment proposal that would move him from associate professor to full professor of sociology and psychology.
The college didn’t reappoint Neal after a female student made but then withdrew her complaint about “inappropriate sexual comments” and class cancellations and after Neal complained to the administration about “salary inequality” between White and non-White faculty. In addition, Neal said college administrators took no action after he reported that a “non-minority student used the ‘N-word’ in his class.”
He sued, and the college asked Kiser to dismiss the case.
Siding with the college on the compensation claim because Neal didn’t present evidence that any White associate professor received a higher salary than he did, Kiser said, “His complaint is that no one is paid enough, not that he was paid less because he is African-American.”
Similarly, the due process claim fell short because Neal had initiated but voluntarily withdrew his internal grievance.
