A University of Idaho law professor is seeking all available remedies for alleged race and gender discrimination from the university, its college of law and former law school dean.
Shaakirrah Sanders was subject to unfair and biased treatment following the appointment of Mark Adams as dean of the college of law in 2014 when “a pattern of disparate terms and conditions of employment” began, according to the complaint, filed June 19 in Boise federal court. These disparities included denying Sanders a similar type of compensation to other professors who taught a course load over 12 credits.
Sanders was hired by the UI College of Law in 2011 as a tenure-track associate professor. Sanders earned tenure in 2016, and in 2018 became the first African-American and second person of color to achieve the rank of full professor in the UI College of Law.
Shaakirrah Sanders | Courtesy
In documents, Sanders alleges she pointed out the lack of neutral criteria to assign and assess faculty workloads, which led to a lack of fundamental fairness to Adams and Associate Dean Richard Seamon, which resulted in her teaching the normal credit package.
“Professor Sanders also told them that she was willing and happy to teach Constitutional Law I but believed that a course release or other compensation was appropriate,” the complaint read. “Dean Adams made clear in response she would not be teaching Constitutional Law I.”
In 2017, the school created two associate dean positions. Sanders met the requirements for the position, including being tenured and able to commit two years to the position, but was not considered, though Adams approached several white and/or male professors about the position, according to the complaint. Sanders said after she confronted Adam about his decision to hire two white men, she was further retaliated against, including being passed over for a stipend that ended up going to two white men with a rank equal to Sanders, according to documents.
Mark Adams | Courtesy
In November 2018, the Executive Summary of the climate and culture of the College of Law documented that leadership was aware of multiple complaints, which included concerns of uncivil and abusive communications, gender and sex bias and perception of favoritism in allocation of resources. The same documents allege the university and College of Law “specifically were willing to have the diversity and discrimination concerns that clearly existed at the college take a seat at the back of the bus until after they could sort through other concerns.”
Adams, whose areas of expertise include employment law and human rights, stepped down as dean last year. Adams did not respond to request for comment.
This is the sixth lawsuit pending against UI at this time. The university does not comment on pending litigation, according to university spokesperson Jodi Walker.
Ellamae Burnell can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @EllamaeBurnell