American University Deals With Six Women’s Charges of Discrimination

Last summer, professor Carolyn Brown accused American University (AU) provost Dr. Scott A. Bass of racial and gender discrimination after he denied her tenure on contentious grounds. Brown is among six women who have accused the provost of such discrimination, including on the basis of age, in recent years, AU’s student newspaper The Eagle reported.

All of the women have filed a formal university complaint, a lawsuit against the university or both. Brown’s tenure appeal is awaiting a final decision from AU president Dr. Sylvia Burwell. Dr. Loubna Skalli-Hanna’s lawsuit is still being decided.

The latest report on the women’s cases comes as Bass announced that he will step down from his provost position in June.

“AU is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer which follows anti-discrimination principles as a matter of policy and practice,” said AU director of public relations Kelly Alexander, in an email. “The university makes personnel decisions on the merits and illegal discrimination is never a factor.”

Alexander said that since Bass became provost in 2008, he has granted tenure to more than 90 percent of tenure applicants, “including a great many women, a substantial number of applicants over 40, 50 and 60, and many individuals from diverse backgrounds,” she said. “In those rare cases in which the provost has decided to deny tenure, his decisions have been for lawful, non-discriminatory reasons.”

Bass could not be reached for comment.

Brown – formerly a professor in AU’s School of Communication (SOC) and now a senior lecturer in the Mayborn School of Journalism at University of North Texas –contends that a part of her tenure denial was due to her “activism on race issues,” she said in an interview. This included encouraging her journalism students to cover and tell stories about the various racial incidents on campus.