Colin Wright, an evolutionary biologist, filed a lawsuit against Cornell on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, claiming that the University “intentionally discriminated” against qualified candidates by not considering white applicants when seeking to fill a faculty vacancy in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology in 2020.
The suit alleges that in its hiring process for the faculty vacancy, the University violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination because of a person’s “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”
The suit also claims that the University's hiring practices violated New York State Human Rights Law § 296 1a, 1d and 13, which prohibit employers from refusing to hire or bar candidates, and blacklisting or willfully acting to discriminate against applicants based on their age, race or creed, among other factors.
Wright, who is white, serves as a fellow of the conservative Manhattan Institute think tank. He is also an academic advisor for the Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine and the founding editor of Reality’s Last Stand, a news page publishing articles about “free speech, science, and reality,” according to its website. Wright participated in a postdoctoral research fellowship at Pennsylvania State University, which he completed in April 2020.
Although Wright never applied for the Cornell faculty position made available in 2020 and only heard of it last year, the suit claims that the University refused “to hire–or even consider or allow to apply–individuals such as himself on the basis of race, color, and/or national origin.”
According to the suit, in an email obtained from an administrator in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from December 2020, which is listed as confidential, the department allegedly sought to obtain a “diversity hire” for an open position and create an interview list of only “underrepresented minority scholars.”
The email allegedly states that a University administrator involved in the hiring process felt that it was best to “invite just one person” at a time to be interviewed for the position, as they were concerned about having a “search dynamic” and sought that the applicants not be in "competition with others.” According to the suit, if the top candidate was not interested in the position, the alleged email states that the department would “move on” to another candidate.
Wright’s filing of the suit follows him receiving a Notice of Right to Sue — which is a letter from a state or federal administrative agency that approves a right to initiate a lawsuit — from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Jan. 23. According to the lawsuit, Wright submitted a formal EEOC discrimination charge against Cornell 180 days before Monday.
A University spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit when asked by The Sun.
Additionally, the suit claims that internal University records show that a spreadsheet compared potential candidates — which was curated by a “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Belonging” working group — and whether or not they satisfied a “diversity axis” qualification.
“Of the top 25 candidates, all were listed as either black, Latina, LGBTQ, disability, American Indian, or Southeast Asian; not a single one had ‘white’ listed by his or her name—and this was by design,” the suit reads.
Cornell made the opening for the position private, which the suit claims violated University Policy 6.6.1, which requires, “unless otherwise exempted in this policy,” each opening to be “posted on the Working at Cornell website for at least five business days.”
The suit follows the filing of a federal civil rights complaint against the University to the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the EEOC by the America First Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank that seeks to promote the policies of President Donald Trump, on June 26.
In their complaint, citing the December 2020 email, the AFPI claimed that the University engaged in “deeply embedded, systemic pattern of discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices,” which have led to “a coercive and hostile environment.”
“This is about civil rights,” said AFPI’s Executive General Counsel Jessica Hart Steinmann. “Cornell’s practices violate federal law and fundamental principles of equality. It’s time for the government to act.”
In a June 27 statement, former Interim Vice President for University Relations Monica Yant Kinney responded to the AFPI complaint, explaining that the University strictly adheres to federal discrimination law and “strongly disputes” the allegations.
“Cornell strictly prohibits unlawful bias or discrimination and has developed policies and practices that comply with applicable laws, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and federal regulations that applied to federal contractors,” the statement reads. “The university trains faculty and staff on recruitment practices that comply with our non-discrimination policy.”
Kinney’s statement also addressed “personal attacks” that she explained were “leveled against our faculty members” within the AFPI complaint.
“Cornell faculty members have devoted their lives to teaching, writing, and research in their fields, and they are all dedicated to providing Cornell students with a world-class education and society with advances in science, engineering, medicine, law, technology, social science, the humanities, and other areas of scholarship,” the statement reads. “Cornell faculty members are among the most learned, accomplished, and well-qualified in their respective academic disciplines.”
In filing the suit, Wright requested that the Court declare that Cornell acknowledge that its employment practices violated Title VII and the New York State Human Rights Law and enjoin the University from “secretly comparing potential job applicants” and offering positions based on race and ethnicity. He also requested that Cornell remove policies, procedures or language directly in violation of federal and state law regarding alleged hiring practices on the University’s websites.
Matthew Kiviat is a member of the Class of 2027 in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is the assistant managing editor for the 143rd Editorial Board and was a news editor for the 142nd Editorial Board. He can be reached at mkiviat@cornellsun.com.
