CCNY ‘revenge’ ax
Dean fired by prexy she ruled against
The new president of City College of New York has canned the university’s diversity dean, who once ruled against him in a discrimination misconduct case.
Michele Baptiste said she is the third administrator to be terminated by Vincent Boudreau. One of the others is black and the other Hispanic.
Her firing comes just after the college hosted as its June 1 commencement speaker law professor Anita Hill, who at Clarence Thomas’ 1991 congressional confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court accused him of sexually harassing her while he was her supervisor at the US Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
“This is their way of saying, ‘ We are inclusive — as a black woman, [Hill] was badly treated and we are honoring her,’ while they are doing the same stuff,” was the view of Ravi Kalia, a CCNY history professor.
Baptiste said Boudreau unceremoniously dropped the ax on her April 26, with a vague pronouncement about wanting a change in leadership
“I think that it was less than a minute,” she said. Baptiste, a lawyer, had worked at the college since 2013 and dealt with issues such as sexual-harassment and discrimination complaints.
Boudreau was named college president Dec. 4, 2017, after serving as interim president and as dean of the college’s Colin Powell School.
During his tenure at the Powell school, professor Lynda Dodd complained that she was discriminated against because she has multiple sclerosis.
Baptiste found that Boudreau and a political science professor had “retaliated against Dodd,” and recommended that Boudreau get a “letter of discipline,” according to a lawsuit Dodd filed against the college.
Baptiste said she believed her firing was in retaliation for that finding and her handling of another employee’s discrimination complaint.
Boudreau told The Post he couldn’t comment on personnel matters and that “the college is committed to upholding the very highest standards in fair employment, diversity and inclusion, and in putting a staff in place that is able to translate that commitment into action and policy.”