Rajesh Singh, a former Emporia State University employee is suing Michael Schonrock, Gwen Alexander, David Cordle and Andrew Smith for monetary damages, upwards of $75,000, for discrimination towards him during his time in School of Library and Information Management at ESU. Singh is from India and currently works at SLIM at St. John’s University in New York.
Singh was employed as an assistant SLIM professor by ESU from Aug. 12, 2009 to May 9, 2015, according to Jackie Vietti, interim president of ESU.
“Since the conditions of Dr. Singh’s departure from Emporia State University are a personnel matter, I am not able to discuss them,” Vietti said. “The University has written policies and processes, including multiple appeal steps, to ensure that professors of all races and ethnicities are treated fairly.”
According to the court document filed by Singh’s lawyers on Oct. 30, 2015, Singh is suing Alexander for treating him unfairly wage-wise.
“On June 23, 2010, Dr. Singh met with Alexander to discuss the possibility of salary equity (with two employees)…” according to the complaint. “They were no more qualified than Dr. Singh, yet they were hired for a 5% higher salary just one year after Dr. Singh…Despite it being a reasonable and polite request, Dean Alexander became enraged and behaved in a confrontational and unreasonable manner during the meeting. She refused to consider pursuing salary equity for Dr. Singh.”
The situation only became more heated after Singh asked for equal pay, according to the complaint.
“Alexander pitted other faculty against Dr. Singh by discussing the private details of the June 23, 2010 meeting with…other faculty. Dean Alexander maliciously, deliberately and repeatedly began marginalizing Dr. Singh by removing him from committees, blocking opportunities through policy changes, and otherwise abusing her power with the express purpose of damaging his work and reputation,” according to the complaint.
This mistreatment was, Singh believed, based on his skin color, which is brown, and his ethnicity, which is asian, according to the court document.
“SLIM treated Dr. Andrew Smith, a white professor and also a foreign national, more favorably than Dr. Singh,” said the court document. “Dr. Smith was hired a year after Dr. Singh at a higher salary and was given 2 years credit toward tenure despite the fact that Dr. Smith did not have the tenure-track experience required by the ESU Policy Manual for this credit, nor did he have master’s degree in library science.”
The court document also claimed that Smith’s starting salary was 5 percent higher and was eventually 30 percent higher than Singh’s salary, despite Singh being more qualified for the position. Singh also claimed that ESU administration barred him from obtaining tenure.
Alexander, Cordle, Schonrock and Smith all declined to comment on the situation, as litigation is still pending.
“David Cordle, Gwen Alexander and Andrew Smith still are employed by Emporia State University,” Vietti said. “Michael Shonrock resigned from Emporia State to accept the position of President at Lindenwood University.”
Alexander, dean of SLIM, is currently on administrative leave and has announced her retirement for the end of the semester, Smith is an associate professor and interim associate dean of SLIM. Shonrock was just named the President of Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO.
The complaint says that no faculty of color have attained tenure in the SLIM department since 2009. David Cordle, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs said this is not true for the whole university.
“Seven faculty members of color have been awarded tenure since 2009,” Cordle said. “No black faculty members have been awarded tenure since 2009, nor have any applied for tenure during that period. All seven were Asian.”
The court document also cites the SLIM faculty’s discriminatory atmosphere during Singh’s time at ESU as further proof.
“A SLIM staff member openly celebrated Hitler’s birthday for years,” said the court document. “SLIM wanted to impose additional requirements to admit non-English speaking students…Dr. Alexander told people Dr. Singh cannot drive because ‘people from India have problems judging space and distance.’”
ESU has protection for faculty and staff of color if they feel they are being treated unfairly, and can be found in the ESU manual.
“The University has written policies and procedures, and appeal procedures, to ensure faculty/staff of all races and ethnicities are treated fairly,” said Judy Anderson, executive director of affirmative action. “For complaints based on a protected class they should follow procedures in Section 3D.0106.05 of the ESU Policy Manual…If determined that policies and procedures have been violated, resolutions are recommended on a case-by-case basis.”
The case will be held in court at Kansas City, Kansas as agreed upon by Singh and his attorneys, according to the complaint. ESU’s attorney’s office has appointed another law firm to take on the case.
“The Kansas Attorney General’s Office handles all litigation in which Emporia State University and other state agencies becomes a party,” said Kevin Johnson, general counsel. “That office has appointed a private law firm in Topeka to represent this particular case on behalf of the university and all individually named defendants. The only effect on the university resulting from this case is that the university will vigorously defend against the allegations and claims in the complaint.”
