UMass Dartmouth to pay $1.2M in discrimination case

THE UNIVERSITY OF Massachusetts Dartmouth owes approximately $1.2 million to Lulu Sun, a professor who claims she was denied a promotion because of her gender and race, according to a ruling of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.
THE UNIVERSITY OF Massachusetts Dartmouth owes approximately $1.2 million to Lulu Sun, a professor who claims she was denied a promotion because of her gender and race, according to a ruling of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.

DARTMOUTH – A case alleging racial and gender discrimination in the denial of a professor’s promotion has cost the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth nearly $1.2 million, the Boston Business Journal reported.

The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination ruled in 2011 that the university was liable for unlawful discrimination against Lulu Sun, a professor of English who claimed she was denied a promotion in 2003 and 2004 because she is a Taiwanese woman, and for taking retaliatory action against Sun after she filed formal discrimination charges with the commission.

UMass Dartmouth appealed the damages awarded under the ruling, which the school said were “disproportionate, arbitrary and capricious.” In May of this year, however, the commission upheld its previous ruling, and UMass Dartmouth decided to withdraw its appeal.

The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination’s May ruling affirmed that UMass Dartmouth must pay $429,000 in damages to Sun in addition to $589,000 in legal fees, including interest, and a $10,000 penalty.

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UMass Dartmouth has already paid $154,000 in back pay to Sun, the BBJ said.

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