Professors allege anti-Semitic discrimination at Wheelock hurt their careers
Two Wheelock College professors have filed complaints against the school alleging they were the victims of anti-Semitic discrimination that damaged their careers, according to The Boston Globe.
Eric Silverman and Gail Dines say discrimination against them began after they penned a 2014 letter detailing what they saw as an exclusion of Jewish perspectives on the small liberal arts school’s Boston campus, the Globe reported. They say the school retaliated by widely and falsely accusing Silverman of using racist language in his classroom and blocking him from applying to other positions, and also confronting Dines with unverified student complaints alleging she was racist and sexist.
Officials at Wheelock told the Globe the claims are “without merit.’’
“Although Wheelock does not comment on the particulars of personnel disputes or litigation, it disagrees strongly with the allegations made in the actions recently filed against the college,’’ said a statement from school officials.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is handling the federal workplace discrimination complaints, the Globe reported, and the next step to resolve the conflict would likely involve mediation between the professors and the college led by the commission. If those attempts fail, the commission could file a lawsuit against the school on behalf of the professors, a move it sees as the last resort.
“People are scared to speak about anything because they’ve seen what’s happened to Eric and I, and they don’t want to be next,’’ Dines told the Globe.
Read the full Globe story here.
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