A Black woman who ran the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives is suing the University of Michigan, claiming racial and gender discrimination in her firing.
The school fired Rachel Dawson in December after she was accused of making antisemitic remarks at an academic conference in March 2024.
Two conference attendees claim Dawson said words to the effect of: “The university is controlled by wealthy Jews” and “We don’t work with Jews. They are wealthy and privileged and they take care of themselves.”
Dawson denies making any such remarks and said the university treated her differently based on her race and gender.
“I am aware of several non-Black employees of the university who have been the subject of similar complaints about their behavior, and none have been terminated,” Dawson wrote in a statement to the school before her disciplinary hearing. “The allegations against me illustrate how racial and gender biases can shape the interpretation of events and statements, especially for Black woman in positions of authority.”
The school denies any wrongdoing.
“Rachel Dawson was appropriately terminated from her employment at the University of Michigan,” school spokeswoman Kay Jarvis told the Free Press in an email last month when Dawson filed a notice of intent to sue. “We will vigorously defend this matter.”
Dawson filed the lawsuit in federal court and noted in it that she also intends to pursue a state court claim of discrimination.
Dawson said she remembered talking with the two women who accused her, but her recollection of the conversation was far different. She said that when the two women heard she was from U-M, they approached her to discuss rumors of antisemitism on campus. Dawson said she told them that the school was doing its best to combat antisemitism and all forms of discrimination.
She noted that the school had recently opened the Raoul Wallenberg Institute to promote tolerance and that Jewish students had access to support groups like Hillel.
Dawson’s suit said the women became hostile, began berating her and even followed her out of the room when she tried to end the conversation. Days later, back at U-M, Dawson said she learned that the women had contacted the Anti-Defamation League, which filed a complaint about her with then-President Santa Ono.
Dawson claims that’s when U-M deviated from its normal disciplinary process. The suit said that the university hired an outside law firm to investigate the claims against Dawson.
That law firm, Covington & Burling LLP, also represents the ADL, which the suit says is a conflict of interest. The firm concluded its investigation and noted that Dawson and her accusers offered differing accounts of the conversation.
Still, the report concluded that “the weight of the available evidence supports the conclusion that Ms. Dawson made the statements attributed to her in the ADL Michigan letter.”
Dawson’s supervisor at the time, Tabbye Chavous, vice provost for equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer, wrote to Ono to question the findings of the investigation.
“Based on all information available to me, I would respectfully disagree with the conclusion drawn from the report,” Chavous wrote.
She also questioned the way the investigation was handled.
“It is obvious that this is not consistent with our normal processes for investigating alleged similar conduct of employees in a similar position as Ms. Dawson at an off-campus conference,” Chavous wrote. “Why is the process for this situation and employee seemingly different from similar kinds of allegations and issues with others and how they are dealt with normally?”
Chavous had written a warning to Dawson after the investigation and ordered her to complete anti-bias training. But the case didn’t end there.
The suit claims that after a university official informed the school’s Board of Regents of the discipline imposed on Dawson, Regent Mark Bernstein wrote back to register his disgust with the decision.
“Mr. Bernstein wrote that the only acceptable outcome would be for Ms. Dawson to be ‘terminated immediately,'” the suit says.
Bernstein declined to comment.
Days after that exchange, Dawson claims in the suit, she was informed the warning letter was being revoked and formal disciplinary proceedings would commence that could lead to termination. She was fired on Dec. 10.
The suit asks the court to declare that the university violated Dawson’s civil rights and to award her damages. The suit is assigned to Judge Laurie Michelson, who was appointed by President Barack Obama.
Contact John Wisely: jwisely@freepress.com. On X: @jwisely
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Former DEI administrator sues University of Michigan, alleges discrimination in firing
Reporting by John Wisely, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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