A federal judge in New York City has rejected a race discrimination and retaliation suit by an African-American assistant professor of economics who failed to win tenure and promotion at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Dr. Christopher Warburton provided no factual support for his allegations, U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken ruled in dismissing the case.
The college hired Warburton in 2006, according to the decision, and he was the only Black member of the department. He had served on the department’s hiring committee but resigned because he said he was concerned about “race-influenced hiring decisions.”
His 2012 application for promotion and tenure was denied despite a favorable recommendation from the faculty personnel committee’s tenure review subcommittee, Oetken said.
He sued under Sections 1983 and 1985 and under the New York constitution.
Oetken found no factual basis for the allegation that White colleagues received more favorable treatment than Warburton did.
“Absent is any detail about Warburton’s White peers, their academic and scholarship credentials, when they were granted tenure or how the standards applied to Warburton’s application differed from those applied to his White peers,” the decision said.
