Dive Brief:
- An Athletic Department HR Director has sued the University of Oklahoma’s Board of Regents in Oklahoma City federal court, accusing the university of racial discrimination and other issues. She has worked at OU since November 2011.
- Kimberly Miller's lawsuit says that she has been discriminated against at work because she is black, a woman, and disabled.
- The university denies the allegations.
Dive Insight:
The lawsuit comes two months after a national uproar over videos of OU fraternity members singing a racist chant on a bus. The university banned Sigma Alpha Epsilon from campus, expelled two students, and disciplined others. Miller's lawsuit says she had been subjected to unequal employment conditions and is being paid less in salary and benefits because of her gender and race. She complains her department was intentionally understaffed in 2014 and she was left out of critical meetings.
She also alleges she has a disability and asked for but was denied reasonable accommodations to perform her job. She alleges she was retaliated against when she complained about the discrimination "in that her job duties and responsibilities are being shifted to other employees with no experience in human resources."
Retaliation-based lawsuits have been consistently on the rise since 2006, according to EEOC statistics.
