A philosophy professor at Florida Atlantic University is suing the school, alleging discrimination while on the job.
The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court last month, says that Carol S. Gould faced ageism and anti-Semitism and that the university violated her rights to equal pay, equal protection and freedom of speech. It also alleges racketeering on the part of some administrators, saying they used money from the Philosophy Department for personal expenses, including trips to Europe.
Gould’s $73,000 annual salary is about 70 percent lower than the average male faculty member’s salary and 25 percent less than the average faculty salary, according to the lawsuit.
“The university denies any wrongdoing and will vigorously defend the lawsuit,” FAU spokeswoman Kristine Gobbo said.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission gave Gould the green light to move forward with the lawsuit in August, after the Miami District Office reviewed her allegations.
The lawsuit says that Gould, who is a tenured full professor, was unfairly denied the position of chair of the Philosophy Department by Manjunath Pendakur, dean of the college of arts and letters.
Pendakur instead gave the job to an associate professor whose wife was on the search committee that selected him as dean in March 2008.
The suit also says that the philosophy chair gave Gould a negative faculty evaluation full of false statements.
Just two weeks after the suit was filed, the philosophy chair resigned from his position. He was out of the office and unavailable for comment.
Marc Reiner, Gould’s attorney, said that he plans to file another discrimination lawsuit in the next several weeks on behalf of another FAU philosophy professor.
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