Click here for the official complaint.
Local African-American leaders are calling on UNM to end what they say are discriminatory practices against African-American employees, particularly those at UNM Hospital.
The Albuquerque chapter of the NAACP, in conjunction with the Ministers Fellowship of Albuquerque and Vicinity, filed a complaint with the Justice Department and the federal Department of Education on Tuesday claiming UNM is biased against African Americans.
The New York Times reported the Title VI complaint. It says the University created a racially hostile environment for African-American faculty, staff and students.
The complaint says African Americans have been excluded from upper administration positions and that African-American women have not been placed in positions of authority within UNM and that African-American faculty face salary disparities.
The complaint alleges the majority of African-American doctors who left UNMH over the past decade did so because of workplace discrimination.
“We basically got to a place where we felt the administration was not willing to even consider making changes, even though they themselves conceded there were disparities,” said Bishop David Cooper, senior pastor of New Hope Full Gospel Baptist Church’s Albuquerque location, to the New York Times.
Cooper, who helped file the complaint, said faculty have come to him with concerns about UNM’s environment of discrimination for years.
“We hope this brings change in policy and practice as it relates to retention, promotion, recruitment and the treatment of African Americans on campus,” he said.
UNM President David Schmidly and Health Sciences Center Chancellor Paul Roth denied the claims of discrimination in a joint statement issued Tuesday.
“We do not discriminate against African Americans. We do not discriminate against any individual or group based on race, religion, sexual orientation, age, gender or ability,” the statement said. “The University has very clear policies in place which prohibit discrimination and we train our employees to comply with the law and our policies.”
Darnell Smith, president of the Albuquerque Chapter of the NAACP, told KOB that an African-American Doctor at UNM took heat for whistle-blowing on poor practices at the hospital.
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“He actually reported an incident that could cause people harm in the operating rooms, and rather than him being supported by the staff, he was actually reprimanded by the administration,” Smith said.
In April of this year, the UNM President’s Office issued an African-American/Black Climate Review Report in an effort to evaluate and address the need for inclusion of African Americans in higher education.
“The African-American/Black community has become isolated within a university community that has historically identified itself with the Native American and Hispanic cultures,” the report concluded.
“UNM has made a significant and bold decision to look at itself in terms of whether the African-American/Black Community is truly one that is being included, respected, acknowledged; as well as, considered to be relevant and integral to the University’s mission of excellence in research, teaching and engagement.”
UNM administrators said in the report they are working on creating a culture that is more inclusive and more aware of racial issues, but continue to deny the claims of discrimination put forward by the complaint.
_Only 3.1 percent of non-tenure track faculty hired by UNMH since 2006 are African-American. _
According to 2010 data, only 1.8 percent of currently serving non-tenure track faculty at UNMH are African-American and only one tenured professor at UNMH is African-American.
All information is according to the UNM Fact Book.
