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Faculty Can Bring Discrimination Suit
By Gwendolyn Bradley
Two faculty members who allege that they were denied tenure at the Texas Tech School of Pharmacy because they are female can sue the institution in federal court, an appellate court ruled in August. The decision means that Lucinda G. Miller and Elaine King-Miller, who are unrelated, can proceed with their discrimination suits, which they filed in 2000. The women also allege that they faced harassment after the tenure denials, and King-Miller alleges that she was dismissed in violation of federal disability laws after having been diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease.
Texas Tech has fought the lawsuits by claiming state immunity. In 2003, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in favor of the institution, but that ruling was overturned by the full court in August. The court rejected the institution’s argument that it is covered by the state’s sovereign immunity from lawsuits, pointing out that the school’s acceptance of federal funds is conditioned upon waiving that immunity. King-Miller received financial support for her case from the AAUP’s Legal Defense Fund.
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