From Magistrate Judge J. Boone Baxter's Report and Recommendation in Greig v. Texas A&M Univ. Texarkana, adopted Thursday by District Judge Rodney Gilstrap (E.D. Tex.):
Plaintiff Carl Greig … alleges he is a fifty-eight year old white male who worked for TAMUT as the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs for approximately twenty-five years. According to Plaintiff, part of his job duties included investigating student complaints about other students' violations of TAMUT's Code of Conduct and other offensive behavior. Plaintiff alleges he received favorable reviews until July 2022 and had never been discipled or told that his job performance fell below acceptable standards prior to July 2022. Plaintiff alleges he was discriminated against on the basis of race based on a single incident where he investigated, but did not discipline, a student who used a negative racial epithet. Specifically, Plaintiff alleges as follows:
In August of 2021, a student ("Student 1") filed a written complaint with [Plaintiff's] office complaining that another student ("Student 2") had used the word "Nigga" in her presence while on a trip to the mall several months earlier (Spring 2021). At the time the offensive word was used, the students were good friends and Student 1 did not complain that she was offended by Student 2's statement. The students' friendship deteriorated after the Spring of 2021 and then had a series of interpersonal problems including, but not limited to, Student 1 complaining to [Plaintiff] about Student 2's offensive statement and Student 2 claiming that Student 1 had threatened to "beat her ass."
[Plaintiff] knew of the students' long history of interpersonal conflict. [Plaintiff] conducted a thorough investigation into Student 1's complaint. [Plaintiff] conducted research regarding Student 2's First Amendment rights and sought guidance from the System General Counsel and the TAMU System Title IX Coordinator on how to respond to Student 1's complaint. Based on advice he received from both legal counsel and the TAMU System Title IX Coordinator and [Plaintiff's] own research, [Plaintiff] decided that punishing Student 2 would violate her First Amendment rights and that she had not violated the Student Code of Conduct in effect at that time. [Plaintiff] counselled Student 2 on three separate occasions about how offensive the word she used was and advised her not to use the word again.
Student 1 was dissatisfied that [Plaintiff] had not removed Student 2 from her position on Student Government and in a sorority and elevated her complaint to the President who assigned the investigation to the Human Resources Department that had no authority over or involvement with student complaints. The Human Resources Director conducted her own investigation into Student 2's statement and ultimately did not punish Student 2.
Plaintiff alleges TAMUT began reducing his job duties following the Human Resource Director's investigation; removed Plaintiff from investigating any student complaint that involved race and from any involvement in any Title IX case; and cancelled, without explanation, an open position for which Plaintiff had selected a candidate. Plaintiff further alleges as follows:
In the aftermath of [Plaintiff's] decision not to discipline Student 2, Defendant held a "Town Meeting," open to students and faculty. At the Town Meeting, a faculty member demanded that [Plaintiff] be replaced by a person of color. Defendant's President attended the Town Hall and did not reject the faculty member's demand. In November 2021, [Plaintiff's] supervisor, the Vice President of Student Affairs, advised him that he should consider looking for a new job because Defendant intended to blame [Plaintiff] for all race-related issues after his failure to punish Student 2. [Plaintiff's] supervisor also said [Plaintiff] made the right decision not to punish Student 2.
