A former program director and researcher at Tufts' Feinstein International Center (FIC) is suing the center's director and the university for bias, saying she was fired in retaliation for accusing him of discrimination against minorities and women and against her for being openly gay.
The employee, Susan Lautze ,claims that she was fired in 2005 for complaining to FIC Director Peter Walker and other university officials that Walker harbored bias toward non-whites, women and homosexuals. Walker said he was firing her because of staff reorganization within the FIC.
Lautze co-founded the FIC in 1996 and headed its first program, the Livelihoods Initiatives Program, until her firing. She was also the center's top fundraiser during her tenure, having garnered over $3 million in grant money, according to her lawsuit, which was finalized on Dec. 20.
Walker told Lautze that she was being released because of staff reorganization within the FIC in an e-mail that came about two months after Lautze had first expressed concerns that Walker harbored bias. The suit claims that this reorganization was a pretense, noting that Lautze was the only FIC researcher to be fired.
"In fact, [the] FIC did undergo a reorganization but Lautze's position was not eliminated; rather, she was eliminated," the suit contends.
The university disputes all accusations of bias. "There was no credible evidence of bias or retaliation by Peter Walker or anyone else at Tufts," Tufts Spokesperson Siobhan Gallagher told the Daily in an e-mail. Walker and his lawyer both declined to comment personally.
Lautze first confronted Walker in March 2005 about her concern that staff diversity at the FIC had declined under his leadership. She told him in an e-mail that she would like FIC employees to discuss "inclusiveness and exclusiveness" at an upcoming spring retreat. But Walker told her she could not attend the retreat unless she promised not to raise these topics.
Walker also told Lautze she was "frightening and intimidating" toward FIC staff, which she interpreted as an indication of his prejudice toward her as a lesbian, the suit says.
Lautze immediately contacted Tufts' Human Resources and expressed her concern that Walker held bias against her and was "trumping up grounds for her dismissal," according to the suit.
Lautze tried repeatedly to air her complaints to Human Resources during April and May of 2005, with little success. She was eventually directed to speak with Judy Diamond, executive associate dean of the Nutrition School. The FIC is part of the nutrition school. Diamond proved hard to reach, and when Lautze did speak with her over the phone, the dean "was abrupt and impatient," the suit says.
But Gallagher said that the university did look into Lautze's complaints. "Ms. Lautze's claims of bias were investigated prior to her being terminated, and the university determined that the decision was supported by legitimate, non-discriminatory business reasons," Gallagher said.
Walker fired Lautze on June 3, 2005, telling her in an e-mail that her position, program director at the FIC's Livelihoods Initiatives Program, was being terminated as part of a reorganization within the center.
Lautze claims that, as the only researcher fired in this reorganization, she did not deserve to be terminated.
In the "Three Year Strategic Plan" that Walker sent out to all FIC staff four days after Lautze was fired, he said that only two of the FIC's six programs had "created any real synergy since the Center was established in 1996," according to a direct quotation from the plan within Lautze's lawsuit. The Livelihoods Initiatives Program, which Lautze directed, was one of these.
And Walker said in an annual performance report that Lautze "met or exceeded performance expectations in all categories, despite being a full-time Ph.D student" during the end of her stint at the FIC, according to the lawsuit. Lautze was studying at Oxford University as a Fulbright Scholar, as she had received Walker's "full support" to do, the suit says.
Lautze's lawsuit also argues that her position was more renamed than it was erased, albeit with some delay. "In fact, in 2006, Lautze was effectively replaced by Daniel Maxwell ... in a renamed position, ... which encompasses the work previously conducted by Lautze," it says.
Lautze is seeking $360,000 in damages. She claims $175,000 in lost wages and compensation, $100,000 in emotional distress, $65,000 in "thesis-related expenses" paid by the center, and $20,000 in legal fees.
