Quick facts
- The lawsuit was filed in federal court on Oct. 18, 2018.
- Joseph Majdalani, the complainant, served as the chair of the department of aerospace engineering from 2013 to 2016, when he resigned. His lawsuit alleges he was forced to resign after colleagues “conspired” to remove him because of his race.
- The University, its board, University President Steven Leath, Provost Bill Hardgrave, former Provost Timothy Boosinger, Associate Provost Emmitt Winn and several faculty members are defendants in the lawsuit.
- Majdalani is suing on the grounds of racial discrimination, violation of privacy, violations of the First Amendment, libel and defamation.
- Majdalani is seeking monetary damages in addition to attorney fees and expenses.
The former chair of Auburn’s aerospace engineering department is suing the University, alleging a widespread conspiracy among his colleagues and some administrators to remove him from his position because of his Semitic race.
Joseph C. Majdalani, who served as the first non-white chair of the department from 2013 to 2016, filed a lawsuit earlier this month in federal court. His suit alleges that several of his white colleagues refused to accept his appointment as chair of the department and worked against him in an effort to have him removed from the chairmanship.
The allegations of discrimination on the basis of race and national origin extend beyond just the College of Engineering. The suit alleges administrators in the provost’s office also engaged in discrimination against Majdalani.
The alleged discrimination described in the lawsuit culminated in the spring of 2016 when Majdalani was forced from his position as chair, the complaint alleges.
Naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1995, Majdalani was born in Lebanon and is of Lebanese decent and Semitic race, according to the lawsuit filed Oct. 18. He previously served as a tenured professor in advanced aerospace engineering at the University of Tennessee before applying for and accepting the open position as chair of Auburn’s aerospace engineering department.
Majdalani’s lawsuit alleges racial discrimination from his colleagues began at and even before the time of his arrival on campus.
From there, the behavior escalated to disrespecting his authority, calling him racial and ethnic slurs, excluding him from gatherings, arbitrarily canceling his classes and leaving him out of important information chains and emails.
The defendants in the case include Auburn University, its board of trustees, University President Steven Leath, Provost Bill Hardgrave, former Provost Timothy Boosinger, Associate Provost J. Emmitt Winn, engineering dean Christopher Roberts and now-aerospace engineering chair Brian Thurow.
Professors R. James Goldstein and Lawrence “Larry” Teeter, then-chair-elect and chair of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, are also named in the lawsuit.
“Auburn will not publicly discuss personnel matters or pending litigation,” the University said in a statement.
Several professors named in the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama haven’t responded to or have declined requests for comment.
Majdalani remains a tenured faculty member in the aerospace engineering department, according to the complaint and the University’s website.
The 66-page lawsuit says several members of the department faculty met with the dean of the college several times before Majdalani even arrived on campus. The group asked Roberts, who hired Majdalani, to rescind the job offer.
“The basis for their request was their belief an ‘outsider’ shouldn’t run the department,” the complaint reads. “Outsider was code for non-Caucasian, middle eastern born.”
Majdalani’s complaint alleges his hiring was an “experiment” from the start. When Roberts refused to rescind his offer, Roberts told the meeting participants if they were not happy with Majdalani’s job performance, the faculty could give him a vote of no confidence and the University would remove him.
Among those in the initial meetings were professors David Cicci, Thurow and Robert “Steven” Gross. Cicci has not responded to requests for comment, and Thurow declined to comment.
“My only comment is that I deny that I have/had any racial prejudice toward Dr. Majdalani,” Gross said in an emailed statement to The Plainsman.
Majdalani alleges Cicci, Gross and professor Andrew Sinclair posed particular problems for him while he was serving as chair.
Cicci refused to meet with Majdalani when he would ask Cicci to report to his office.
The same group, plus Thurow, were part of a larger group of faculty known as the “lunch bunch” — or “lynching bunch“ because of their racial biases — according to the lawsuit.
Even though he knew and acknowledged the racial bias in the department, Roberts refused to address the issue, saying only “Joe has a racial problem in his department,” the lawsuit states.
“Dean Roberts did nothing to address the existence of discrimination, likely because the problem existed above him, too,” the complaint reads.
Majdalani’s attorneys write in the complaint that Winn, the associate provost, used discriminatory language when talking to and about Majdalani.
“Associate Provost Winn would disrespect Dr. Majdalani often calling him the ‘Lebanese’ guy or the ‘Lebanese professor,’” the lawsuit reads. Winn has not responded to a request for comment.
The allegations extend further up the administrative chain.
“Members of Auburn University’s faculty share similar stories and worse regarding statements made by Provost Boosinger relative to race, and in particular individuals of the Semitic race and those not born in the United States,” the lawsuit reads.
Boosinger has not responded to an emailed request for comment.
The meetings of the “lunch bunch” escalated to a coordinated conspiracy to get Majdalani fired from his job, his complaint alleges.
The same group of professors mentioned in the lawsuit as going to those meetings later complained to the dean, the provost and the associate provost about Majdalani’s performance as chair.
“Because of his race and/or national origin, Thurow, Cicci, Gross and later Sinclair conspired to wrongly discredit Dr. Majdalani to bring about his removal from the chair position and his termination,” the lawsuit alleges, saying Thurow, who is now the chair, wanted the position for himself.
Because of their complaints, which Majdalani views as being racially motivated, Boosinger, Winn, Roberts, Thurow and others met to discuss a no-confidence vote against Majdalani, which would lead to his removal and replacement, according to the complaint.
“Provost Boosinger, Assoc. Provost Winn, and Dean Roberts were aware without the votes from those with a discriminatory animus towards Dr. Majdalani, the possibility of a successful no confidence vote was nil, but those individuals’ discriminatory beliefs were in line with their own, so their votes were given particular weight,” the lawsuit says, alleging the group made special arrangements for Sinclair to maintain leave of absence status so he could vote even though he was employed with the Air Force at the time.
Their efforts led to a meeting between Majdalani and the dean on Feb. 3, 2016, when he was told faculty members including Cicci and Gross were unhappy with his style of running the department, the lawsuit alleges.
Roberts, the dean, gave him two choices, both of which led to his removal as chair, the complaint reads.
The first option: He could accept a position as the Hugh and Loeda Endowed Chair, go on administrative leave as department chair until May 15, 2016, sign a pre-drafted resignation letter on May 16, 2016 and continue to use summer funding for his research while maintaining his compensation.
Or the second option: He could have his chairmanship publicly and involuntarily taken from him and his salary reduced, though he would remain a professor.
In distress, Majdalani chose the first option and signed a resignation letter.
Even after he lost his chair, the discrimination didn’t stop, Majdalani told the court.
A hearing panel at the University recommended Majdalani’s dismissal as a faculty member in September 2017.
The panel was convened after Majdalani was accused of behaving unethically while serving as a judge for an American Institute of Aeronautic and Astronautics regional technical paper competition while he was on University administrative leave.
The suit alleges Thurow worked with one of Majdalani’s former students to get confidential ratings and comments on papers as a basis to make the accusation, which was rebuffed by the AIAA in letters submitted to Leath to support the reversal of the dismissal finding. Leath did end up reversing the panel’s dismissal recommendation based on a lack of evidence to support the conclusion.
“Thurow wrongly appropriated Dr. Majdalani’s personal information related to his grading practices while volunteering as a judge for the AIAA,” the lawsuit reads.
Majdalani’s lawsuit lists nine counts including violations of the Civil Rights Act, conspiracy to violate the Civil Rights Act, violations of the First Amendment, libel and defamation of character, civil conspiracy under Alabama law and invasion of privacy.
Majdalani is seeking compensatory damages, nominal damages and attorney’s fees and expenses.
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Chip Brownlee, senior in journalism and political science, is the editor-in-chief of The Auburn Plainsman.
