A former Oberlin College professor is suing after she says she was denied a tenure-track position based on her race, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, and marital status.
The Morning Journal reported that Alice Blumenfeld, a former visiting assistant professor of dance, filed the lawsuit alleging discrimination after she says Oberlin Dance Department Chair Ann Cooper Albright told her she couldn’t be hired because she was “another white woman from the Midwest with a husband.”
The statement allegedly occurred on July 7, 2019, when Blumenfeld was told to look for a position elsewhere.
“Ms. Albright, acting individually and in her capacity as chair of Oberlin’s Dance Department, effectively rejected Ms. Blumenfeld for the new tenure-track position, not because of her accomplishments, her skill, her experiences, her work ethic, or her individual and personal qualities, but instead, because of her race, the color of her skin, her sex, her sexual orientation, her national origin, and her ancestry,” Blumenfeld alleges in her lawsuit.
“While Ms. Blumenfeld was more qualified for the tenure-track position than the individual Oberlin hired, she failed to meet the identity-based qualifications that the defendants required, which included qualifications based upon race, skin color, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin and ancestry,” the lawsuit says.
Blumenfeld’s position was terminated on June 30, 2020, but was not hired for the tenure-track position. As the Journal reported, Blumenfeld filed a complaint with Oberlin’s director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Rebecca Mosely, requesting the matter be handled confidentially to avoid professional consequences.
Blumenfeld’s complaint led to an internal review by Oberlin, which unsurprisingly found that it had not discriminated against the former professor. The report did, however, suggest “three policy recommendations to improve hiring practices and the complaint process,” the Journal reported.
“The lawsuit names Oberlin College, Albright and Mosely as defendants, and seeks damages in excess of $25,000 for discrimination on race and color, discrimination based on sex and sexual orientation, discrimination based on national origin and ancestry, retaliation, and negligent hiring, retention and supervision,” the Journal reported.
Neither Oberlin nor Albright responded to the Journal’s requests for comment.
Oberlin is no stranger to racial controversy or lawsuits. In 2019, the college was ordered to pay tens of millions of dollars to the owners of a small bakery after college officials helped students protest the establishment, claiming racial discrimination. A member of the family that owns the bakery caught a non-white Oberlin student stealing wine and was attacked by the shoplifter and his friends. The student acknowledged he shoplifted, yet other Oberlin students harassed the business claiming the shoplifter was discriminated against. Oberlin officials attended the protests and attempted to stop the press from filming. Officials also passed out flyers claiming the bakery had a history of racism.
As The Daily Wire previously reported, internal emails from Oberlin administration officials revealed that behind the scenes, administrators trashed the bakery.