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The Liberty Justice Center filed the lawsuit Monday on behalf of
Stephen Kleinschmit, who was a clinical associate professor in
the university's Department of Public Policy, Management, and
Analytics.
"During his time at UIC, he became concerned about the
university’s fixation on race when interviewing and hiring
faculty – and quickly realized that multiple university programs
were illegal under federal law because they regularly used race
as a primary or even exclusive factor in hiring decisions,"
Liberty Justice Center said in a news release.
After bringing his concerns forward, the university terminated
his contract in August 2023, the lawsuit says.
"The Liberty Justice Center’s lawsuit alleges that UIC
retaliated against Professor Kleinschmit for criticizing its
illegal acts of discrimination against its employees and
potential applicants – in blatant violation of the right to
equal protection under the law," the news release states. "The
lawsuit also alleges that university administrators purposely
withheld notification of his contract nonrenewal until the
academic hiring cycle was concluding, leaving him unemployed for
an entire year."
Kleinschmit is seeking financial compensation for the earnings
and benefits he lost and he also is seeking the end to what he
says are the university's discriminatory hiring and retention
practices.
“The University of Illinois Chicago repeatedly engaged in
blatant acts of racial discrimination, then added illegal
retaliation to the mix to avoid accountability for its unlawful
behavior,” Reilly Stephens, senior counsel at the Liberty
Justice Center, said in a statement. “These actions are
unacceptable violations of the right to equal protection under
the law, and we urge the court to put a stop to it immediately.” |
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