Judge: Suit against UI can proceed

A federal judge is allowing a two-year-old discrimination complaint against the University of Idaho to move forward.

As reported by the American Bar Association’s ABA Journal this week, UI College of Law Professor Shaakirrah Sanders initially filed the lawsuit in 2019 and subsequently amended it in 2019 and 2020.

Sanders alleges she was unfairly denied an associate dean position in 2017, and that she faced a variety of unfair conditions and terms of employment during her 10 years at the school.

She also alleges she was retaliated against when she raised concerns about this treatment.

The University of Idaho filed a summary judgment motion seeking to dismiss the case, saying Sanders failed to file the complaint in time and failed to establish a genuine dispute of material fact.

The ABA Journal noted that U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill rejected that argument. He said the evidence submitted by Sanders “is more than sufficient” to raise questions of material fact.

However, Winmill did agree to dismiss two claims based on alleged violations of state whistleblower and academic freedom laws, the Journal reported, because “the university is immune from lawsuits in federal court regarding state law.”

In a 90-page memorandum explaining his ruling, Winmill noted that UI’s Office of Civil Rights and Investigations received at least 35 reports regarding sexual or racial discrimination at the College of Law from 2011 through the fall of 2020.

It’s unclear if some or all of those complaints came from the same person. Nevertheless, they triggered a “climate and culture” review during the 2017-18 school year, which involved interviewing nearly three dozen College of Law faculty and staff.

According to the review, Winmill wrote, several faculty members felt that “females are disproportionately ‘shut down’ or admonished by those in the senior leadership group for the aggressive communication,” and that gender bias affected “who is allowed to speak at meetings and in what way.”

The report acknowledged that “some of the concerns raised during the course of the (review) could rise to the level of what is considered discrimination, retaliation, gender or sex discrimination.”

The college intended to hire a consultant and create an action plan to address the findings in the report, Winmill wrote, “but everything just sort of stopped and a consultant was never hired.”

The leadership of the College of Law has changed since that report was issued. Loyola University law professor Johanna Kalb was named the new dean of the school earlier this year. Kalb started work in May.

Spence may be contacted at bspence@lmtribune.com or (208) 791-9168.