CHARLESTON – A Black female administrator at West Virginia State University says she was a victim of racial and gender discrimination and wrongfully terminated.
Christina Mariam Dalton filed her complaint January 24 in Kanawha Circuit Court against the university, the WVSU Board of Governors and WVSU President Ericke Cage. WVSU is a historically Black university.
According to the complaint, Dalton obtained a Master in Business Administration Degree from Marshall University in 2011 and, after working for other state institutions, was hired by WVSU in December 2020 as Vice President of Business and Finance. Cage became interim president of WVSU in September 2021 and president in March 2022.
In February 2022, Dalton filed a race and gender discrimination complaint against Associate Provost Robert Wallace.
In November 2021, Dalton says she notified Cage in an email about $80,000 to $100,000 of federal funds being improperly spent on a presidential search. She says she also repeatedly told Cage the school’s information technology infrastructure was broken and that accounting systems technology was outdated, making it impossible to produce proper accounting reports and meet proper accounting procedures. She says Cage ignored all of those complaints.
Dalton says she also raised the issue of a male tennis coach who had sexually harassed a young woman on campus and that one campus police officer was incompetent and should not be employed. She says Cage ignored these complaints as well. She says the male tennis coach continued to attend university events where the alleged victim was present even after a Title IX complaint was filed against him. And she says the campus officer later drove a vehicle into the campus library.
Dalton says she was fired June 6, 2022, with no reason given by the defendants. She also says she never was disciplined during her time at WVSU. She says Cage knew her firing and failure to rehire her were violations of the West Virginia Human Rights Act, but she says he encouraged and participated in the decision to fire her.
She says the defendants violated the state Whistle-Blower Law. She says they violated the state Human Rights Act with reprisal, aiding, abetting, sexual and gender discrimination, racial discrimination and other discriminatory actions.
Dalton says she has suffered lost wages and benefits, indignity, embarrassment, humiliation and emotional distress. She seeks compensatory and punitive damages as well as pre-judgment interest, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
She is being represented by Mark A. Atkinson of Atkinson & Frampton in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Tera Salango.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 23-C-51
