A White former assistant professor can seek damages from Virginia Union University for alleged discrimination in its decision not to renew her year-to-year contract but not for a reprimand she received, a federal judge in Richmond has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Robert Payne allowed her to pursue a bias claim based on the nonrenewal of her contract. According to the decision, she was the subject of student complaints shortly after her arrival and continuing through her employment.
The university also claimed she refused to spend time at the VUU Writing Center as her department chair requested, and there were conflicts concerning a requested travel grant, membership on a search committee and a dean’s allegedly discriminatory remarks.
In 2015, Dragulescu received the department’s lowest score in her performance evaluation, but her grievance to the Faculty Senate led to a reevaluation with a higher score and with credit for obtaining a federal grant. The same year, the dean issued a reprimand based on a complaint about comments she’d made on a student’s paper.
In his decision, Payne said a jury can decide the termination-related Title VII claim. While the university cited her “continuous difficulties with students and her refusal to follow the instructions of her superiors” as its legitimate non-discriminatory rationale against renewal, there was evidence that the dean “views events at VUU through a racial lens” and had made the alleged comments.
In addition, “a jury could surmise pretext” from evidence that university officials gave two “significantly different reasons for recommending nonrenewal,” Payne said.
