Diverse Docket: Judge Rules Miami U. Did Not Discriminate in Tenure Case - Higher Education: A federal judge in Ohio has rejected a race discrimination suit by a Miami University engineering faculty member who was denied tenure on the basis of insufficient research.
U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel said Dr. Marvin Thrash, who is Black, failed to show that the university’s rationale was a pretext for discrimination and didn’t demonstrate that he was at least as well-qualified as two White faculty members who did receive tenure.
Thrash will appeal, said his lawyer, Marc Mezibov of Cincinnati.
In 2004, Thrash joined the Department of Paper Sciences and Engineering as a tenure-track assistant professor. It was an opportunity hire through a program that created a “financial incentive” for academic departments to increase the number of under-represented minorities among the faculty.”
