A married Asian American couple — both a former and current faculty member of the University of Michigan — have charged the school with multiple violations of the Michigan Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act based on race, gender and marital status in a lawsuit that could expose the school’s shallow commitment to diversity.
Scott Kurashige, who has been with the university since 2000 and a full tenured professor since 2012, and his wife, Emily Lawsin, a lecturer in women’s studies and American culture since 2000, claim the discriminatory treatment they received resulted in a hostile work environment and retaliation, violations of the Michigan Civil Rights Act and of the Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act.
“This case is a significant case for the academic world to follow because the UM has one of the most comprehensive diversity policies and procedures in the country,” said the plaintiff’s lawyer, Alice Jennings, who added the university’s policies actually did little to assure diversity.
“The Plaintiff’s Lawsin and Kurashige are high-performing, academic scholars, yet the moment they begin to raise issues of race discrimination and race- and sex-hostile work environments at UM, they were quickly retaliated against and eventually pushed out of the UM.”
The lawsuit paints a broad picture of discrimination and exclusion at the school that Kurashige previously documented in his writing and in the media. The suit alleges his outspokenness on exposing the school’s discriminatory demographics (e.g., only 4.1 percent Black, 4.6 percent Hispanic, 0.2 percent Native American in 2015; only 4 percent of students from low-economic status in 2014) led to his termination as director of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Studies Program in 2013.
Kurashige, a tenured professor and a winner of the American Historical Association’s Beveridge Award, alleges he was blacklisted by colleagues and forced to resign in 2014.
Lawsin was also harassed for attempting to expose discriminatory practices at the school. While on protected leave to care for a baby with Down syndrome in 2015, she alleges the school began layoff proceedings that turned into a move to terminate. Lawsin has since been barred from teaching her classes for the winter 2017 semester.
