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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Professor accuses WVU of discrimination based on national origin, religion

Federal Court
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CLARKSBURG – An Italian-born West Virginia University professor says he was subjected to discrimination based on his heritage and religion.

Paulo Farah filed his complaint in federal court against the WVU Board of Governors.

According to the complaint, Farah says he is from Italy and is Jewish. He was born and raised in Italy and speaks with an Italian accent. He is the only non-American in his department.


Farah | Courtesy photo

He says he filed a discrimination charge against WVU on the basis of religion and national origin with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on September 16, 2021, and amended it on February 14, 2022. He received a notice of the right to sue from the EEOC on September 12, 2022.

In early 2014, Farah says WVU offered him a position as an assistant professor of Public Admiistration in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences for the John D. Rockefeller IV School of Policy and Politics, Department of Public Administration. He started the job in August 2014.

Because of a delay in processing his Visa, Farah says WVU offered two different contracts to sign simultaneously. One was a position as visiting assistant professor for the 2014-2015 academic year, and the other was a tenure-track assistant professor position starting in the 2015-2016 academic year. Associate Provost C.B. Wilson told Farah that WVU would allow him to request credit for the first year to become part of his tenure-track position.

Farah said he accepted the tenure-track position because WVU promised him more research time and a tenue promotion in or about 2017. Dean Bob Jones and former chairman John Kilwein told Farah his international experience would count toward his tenure track, according to the complaint.

When Farah was hired by the Department of Public Administration, Matthew Barnes was hired at the same time. He is an American-born male. Another professor, Margaret Stout, told Farah the department preferred Barnes to Farah, according to the complaint. Farah says Barnes was invited to several social events, meeting and gatherings that he was no invited to attend.

In February 2017, new department chair Maja Holmes denied Farah’s application for tenure. Holmes and the Department Faculty Evaluation Committee told him his international experience did not count toward tenure.

Farah filed a grievance in response to the denial, and he ultimately resolved the grievance because the settlement allowed him to apply for tenure in 2019 and extended his work visa so he didn’t have to leave the United States before his son’s impending birth. WVU awarded him tenure in May 2020.

In April 2021, Farah says he complained to Holmes about her mocking his accent after she made a comment that Farah “miscommunicated” something concerning a student internship policy. But Farah says Holmes actually had given him the wrong information.

Farah also says colleagues asked him about the origins of his last name and said it didn’t sound Italian. He also said WVU employees criticized him for taking time to visit family in Milan while Margaret Stout, an American professor, would visit her family in Arizona without being criticized.

He also says the Department Faculty Evaluation Committee rated his performance worse than that of his American and non-Jewish colleagues despite his consistent performance and accomplishments. He says several staffers also “sharply criticized” his work and routinely removed his contributions to department projects and tasks.

On November 2, 2020, Farah says Stout told him, “The Department of Public Administration Faculty Evaluation Committee wanted to make you hate being at WVU so much that you would want to leave by yourself.”

Farah says WVU awarded him smaller salary increased than it did to American-born colleagues and “consistently removed Farah from department communications and newsletters, giving the impression to those reading the newsletter that Farah no longer worked for WVU.”

He says his ability to use paternity leave also was limited by either not informing him of his ability to take leave or modify his duties or outright delaying or refusing to allow it on multiple occasions, including the birth of his two sons in 2018 and 2021 despite allowing American colleagues to take such leave as needed.

He also says he wasn’t told and was refused to modify his work schedule or take leave following two miscarriages he and his spouse suffered in 2020 despite allowing colleagues to do so as needed.

Farah also says the defendants called him a “total jackass.”

Also, in 2019, Farah says Holmes told him about a grant opportunity from the United States Energy Association that she said would be “perfect” for Farah’s “expertise and research.” WVU ended up partnering with the University of Wyoming in the grant. When the grant was approved in January 2020, Farah says he wasn’t told about it until a week or two after others involved at WVU learned of it.

“WVU’s team had begun to work on the project by the time Farah learned of the approval, and WVU’s team excluded Farah from key communications and meetings even though Farah was the principal investigator,” the complaint states, adding that others involved exchanged emails about Farah “missing in action” and being unresponsive. “They also suggested he was lazy, that his work product was a “mess” and “crap,” and he was only participating in the project for the money.

“They have also suggested that members of the project give Farah ‘some rope so he will hang himself.’”

Farah also says Sam Taylor, assistant director of WVU’s Energy Institute and overseer of WVU’s grant approval process, told Farah the funding intended to go to him should go to WVU College of Law professor Jesse Richardson, who assisted with the grand proposal.

“Taylor pressured Farah to accept this change by yelling at him during the call,” the complaint states. “Farah refused to have Taylor move funding meant for Public Administration graduate students to Richardson and the College of Law. Farah told Taylor that he did not have the authority to shift the USEA/Department of Energy funding himself.

“Taylor later described his call with Farah in an email to (UW professor Tara) Righetti dated January 22, 2020, as ‘wrangling’ over a ‘budget revision.’”

When Farah complained again, he says Taylor shifted Farah’s funding back but removed Farah as WVU principal investigator for the project and promoted himself to principal investigator even though Taylor didn’t yet have his Ph.D.

Farah says the WVU team withheld information from him about the project for the next four months as well as excluded him from meetings and communications about the project.

He says Richardson called him a “problem child in the department” in an email with Righetti and Taylor. The next day, Righetti sent Farah a letter written by Richardson advising the WVU team that Farah was being removed from the project team. He says the team criticized his drafts but didn’t reference his American coworkers’ drafts “even though Richardson admitted he plagiarized large portions of his drafts from another source.”

As a result, Farah says he lost all of the funding he was set to receive for his department for the student stipends. He says it went to Richardson and the College of Law instead.

Farah accuses the WVU BOG of discrimination based on national origin and religion, both violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He seeks economic damages, compensatory damages and liquidated damages as well as pre-judgment interest, lost wages, promotion or other equitable relief, front pay, back pay, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.

He is being represented by Drew M. Capuder of Capuder Fantasia in Fairmont and by R. Scott Oswald and Adam Augustine Carter of The Employment Law Group in Washington, D.C.

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia case number 1:22-cv-153

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