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Culture Talk
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Racism in Columbia University
| Author | Subject: Racism in Columbia University |
| Rupesh Chabbra |
Posted At 11:45:54 11/24/2003
Ironically no local papers published this article. I had to get it from Times of India, an Indian newspaper.
An Indian American management analyst at Columbia University has sued it for racial discrimination.
Randy Raghavendra, a senior management analyst at Columbia University 's Office of Institutional Real Estate (IRE), has filed a class-action lawsuit, the second such lawsuit the New York university has faced in less than nine months. Raghavendra said that he hoped his case would help to publicise "the blatant racial discrimination I and other racial minorities may have suffered or continue to suffer at Columbia University ," according to The Cornell Daily Sun, one of the country's oldest daily college newspapers.
Raghavendra sent an e-mail message to all Ivy League student newspapers this week after an article about the case was published in the Columbia Spectator. The e-mail included a press release outlining the details of his alleged victimisation. The lawsuit, filed in the New York State Supreme Court in July, was against William Scott, the deputy vice president of IRE, Karen Fry, the assistant vice president of IRE, and the board of trustees of Columbia University .
Raghavendra said they "(practise) blatant racial discrimination and (use) various deceptive tactics to keep out blacks and other dark-skinned minorities from higher-paying managerial and executive positions of power". Raghavendra, who describes himself as a dark-skinned Indian American, filed the lawsuit after he was turned down for a promotion. After working at IRE for a year, Raghavendra applied for a one-level promotion to the position of manager of finance/accounting in September 2002.
He claimed that by the time he was interviewed, the position had been filled by a younger white woman, Jennifer Fabrizio. He called his interview with Fry "a joke" and "a fake interview". Raghavendra, who has nearly 20 years of professional experience and two masters degrees, said Fabrizio has a third of his qualifications. She was hired through an outside search firm, a common practice in IRE. After six months, Fabrizio left the position.
The press release said Raghavendra also felt that "they go out of their way to prevent you from getting any higher rank" if one is a "dark-skinned minority". He said there were no African Americans in a position higher than his in IRE and the one Pakistani who has a higher title "is not really that dark-skinned". Raghavendra claimed that when he first met Scott, the white man made sarcastic race-related comments about affirmative action. On another occasion, the press release said, "Scott asked him, 'Do you often get hassled at the airport security?' suggesting... Raghavendra looked like a potential terrorist." However, Scott was quoted as saying that the charges of racial discrimination against him were "bizarre", "have no merit" and are "silly beyond belief".
Raghavendra said he did not have his own office and has shared office space with up to two other people. He claimed that all white officers, even those in lower positions, "had their own comfortable office space and a separate mailbox". Scott said that Raghavendra is a relatively new employee, and other employees also share offices and mailboxes, and it "has nothing to do with race".
Raghavendra's lawsuit comes on the heels of a December 2002 Federal Court case filed against Columbia by Zenobia White-Farrell, the university's former acting director of the Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action. White-Farrell, in her complaint, alleged "a pattern and practice of discrimination against African Americans in terms of compensation, hiring and promotion". Raghavendra pointed out the irony that the previous lawsuit was filed by the former head of the very department that deals with cases of discrimination. "The person who has been appointed to investigate my case appears to be the beneficiary of racial discrimination herself," Raghavendra wrote. Susan Reiger, associate provost of the OEOAA, holds the position that was contested by White-Farrell.
Raghavendra filed a complaint with Reiger and Colleen Crooker, vice president of Human Resources, but said they "played games" with him. He claimed that "no meaningful internal investigation was ever conducted". Once he "lost faith in the equal opportunity office", Raghavendra said he withdrew his complaint from OEOAA, just three months after the initial grievance was filed. He is now being represented by Kaiser, Saurborn and Mair, PC, the same firm that represented White-Farrell.
According to Columbia 's response to Raghavendra's court complaint, he "failed to utilise his internal administrative remedies, including the complaint policies and procedures provided by Columbia ". Raghavendra seeks punitive damages and "equitable relief". He said he hoped to be offered the position of manager of finance/accounting and would like to stay at Columbia after the suit was settled.
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| rimita chatterji |
Re: Racism in Columbia University (Currently 1 replies)
Posted At 20:42:29 12/03/2003
Racism exists in all ivy-league schools. Rarely you see a chair of the department who isn't white. May be computer science is an exception. But there is no way to prove it. I do not think Raghavendra has a way to prove it either. Unless he makes a big hullabaloo with the help of Equal opportunity supporter organizations.
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