Another DePaul University professor is in the news after filing a civil rights lawsuit against the university alleging racial discrimination.
College of Law professor Terry Smith’s lawsuit, filed in a Chicago federal court on February 28, contends that university officials retaliated against him due to his advocacy on issues of racial diversity at the law school and DePaul more broadly. Among the defendants are law dean Jennifer Rosato Perea and former DePaul president Rev. Dennis Holtschneider.
The suit follows Smith’s earlier defense of a colleague’s use of the word “nigger” in a hypothetical situation posed to a law class, sparking backlash amongst some minority students at the time.
“There’s a material difference between sitting in a classroom and hearing the ‘N-word used in a criminal law hypothetical and enduring a work environment where Whites and minorities are afforded opportunities ahead of you because they are silent about institutional discrimination,” said Smith, a distinguished research professor of Law at DePaul. “There’s no justification for discriminating against someone because he opposes discrimination and vocalizes that opposition.”
Smith added that he has faced racial animus and a “hostile environment” since he first started at the college in 2010. His advocacy has included calling for more diverse hiring practices of faculty and the creation of the Faculty for Tenure Justice movement at DePaul along with professors Sumi Cho and Valerie Johnson. In an open letter in 2016, he called for former DePaul president Rev. Dennis Holtschneider to step down for what he says was a failure to protect Black students’ right to protest the racial provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos’ visit to campus.
Other claims in Smith’s suit allege that as a result of his association and collaboration with Cho on anti-discrimination issues, Smith faced “systemic and ongoing exclusion from committee and administrative posts” and “professional ostracization” by colleagues.
After recommending Cho for a position on a dean search committee, Smith’s suggestion was rejected and another minority colleague “who was far less outspoken” than Cho was selected, Smith said. A subsequent attempt to defend Cho’s candidacy for a position on the University Board on Promotion and Tenure (UBPT) led to law faculty ousting Smith from his position as a Faculty Council alternate, a position with little completion historically, Smith noted.
