A federal judge has thrown out a race and gender discrimination suit against the Community College of Philadelphia by an African American filmmaker who wasn’t hired for a full-time position in the English Department.
He applied again in 2014 although he lacked the required Ph.D. or master’s degree in “English composition or closely related field” or MFA.
Of the seven applicants recommended after three rounds of interviews, two were African-American women, two were White men, two were White women and one was a White/Asian/Pacific Islander woman. All had degrees in the required fields, according to the decision by U.S. District Judge Nitza Quiñones Alejandro.
Dowdell and a White woman without a master’s in a required field were the only two finalists not hired.
Dismissing the Title VII and Section 1983 claims, Alejandro said Dowdell failed to meet the educational qualification of a degree in a “closely related field.” In addition, the college’s review of his transcripts showed that he lacked at least 18 graduate credits in English, literature, developmental English or reading to qualify as “closely related.”
The fact that one administrator involved in the hiring process allegedly smiled during an off-color joke and that another administrator allegedly said that African-American faculty members didn’t support her was insufficient evidence of discriminatory intent, Alejandro held. One of those “stray remarks” was made eight years before the hiring process and the other 15 years before.
