#1 . 6-71-08 EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION MEROUANE LAKEHAL-AYAT, ‘Charging Party, * EEOC AFFIDAVIT ST. JOHN FISHER COLLEGE, Charge No. Respondent, STATE OF NEW YORK) ss 525-2018-01060 COUNTY OF MONROE) Merouane Lakebal-Ayat, being duly swom, deposes and states: 1, Iwas bor in Algeria and am currently 70 years old. 2, Tam a naturalized citizen of the United States and English is « second language for me. 3. Tama devout Muslim who was educated by Jesuits and appreciates the Christian religion. 4. Lam currently employed at St. John Fisher College as a tenured professor of finance in the College's School of Business. I have been a member of the College faculty since September 1986. As a tenured professor of finance, I report immediately to the Chair of the Department, who in tum reports to the Deen, who then reports to the Provost, and then to the President. As set forth in further detail below, numerous individuals have held these various positions throughout my tenure with the College. 6. Throughout my career at St. John Fisher College I have been an exemplary employee who has always received excellent performance evaluations. In fact, ! have been named 4 Fulbright Fellow on five occasions and have received the the College on four occasions.7. I have been repeatedly discriminated against and suffered a hostile work environment by the College and its agents due to my national origin, ethnicity, religious beliefs and age; and I have been retaliated against for complaining of such discrimination and hostile ‘work environment. 8. The specific discriminatory and retaliatory acts described below have been ‘condueted by the College President Gerald Rooney (the “President” or “Mr. Rooney”), the College's Provost Kevin Railey (*Provost” or “Mr. Railey”), the Dean of the College of Finance ‘and Accounting Rama Yelkur (“Dean” or “Ms, Yelkur"), the former Chairwoman of my ‘department Mareia O'Brien ("Chair" or “Ms. OBrien"), and the College’s Vice President of Human Resources Beth Skrainar (“HR Rep” or “Ms, Skruinar’, 9. ‘The President is a Caucasian male of an age younger than myself. His religion is unknown to me other than he isnot Muslim. He is relatively new at his position, having started in July of 2015, and has no acedemic teaching experience 10, The Provost is a Caucasian male of an age younger than myself. His religion is lunkzown to me other than he is not Muslim, The Provost is also relatively new at his position, hhaving stated in July of 2016, He is similarly not very experienced in academic matters, having previously served only as the Dean of adult education programs at Buffalo State College. 11, The Dean is a female of Indian descent of an age younger than myself. Her is Hindu. The Dean is relatively new at her position, having started in igion is not Muslim; 2016. She came from Saginaw Valley State University 12, The Charis a Caucasian female of an age younger than myself. Her religion is tnknown to me other than she isnot Muslim, I understand that subsequent to the disrimination And retaliation against me, the Provost and Dean have removed her from the Chair position. 13. The HR Rep is « Caucasian female of an age younger than myself, Her religion is ‘unknown to me other than she is not Muslim. She also has very limited experience with human Fesouree issues in an academic setting, her only experience having been her current position, 22.‘which was held for approximately two years during the discriminatory and retaliatory acts stated below. 14, As mentioned above, the Dean joined the College community in 2016. Initially, noticed her disdain for me due to my heritage and religion. There is a long history of Muslims being discriminated against by Hindus. 15, Indeed, here, the Dean sought to only hire professors of Indian heritage who are Hindu, I rejected one of her favored Indian and Hindu candidates due to his relative inexperience ‘compared to another candidate, who she staunchly opposed and who happened to be of African descent and a Muslim background, although he practices Christianity. 16, Similarly, the Provost has put in writing via email to faculty that only U.S, Citizens may be hired in faculty positions at St. John Fisher College. 17, This disdain for me first tuned to actionable discrimination against me in May 2017 when despite a strong review from my department chair and the prior exceptional academic record, the Dean issued me no salary increase, despite a salary pool of 2.5 percent for being fully satisfactory and 3.0 percent for merit. I was the only tenured employee not to receive a pay raise, ined to the Chair and Provost that the denied pay raise was 181 comp! discriminatory and retaliatory and, ultimately, they reversed the Dean's decision and awarded me an increase of 2%. 19, ‘The Dean became frustrated that I received a raise and that I had complained of this discrimination. Immediately thereafter, she continued to discriminate against me and retaliate against me due to my age, heritage and religion. She sought to have me removed from my voluntary position as faculty advisor to the Student Investment Club, a position I had held for 18 months. The Student Finance Committee rebuked her efforts. But she persisted and ultimately I was removed as the faculty advisor. 20, While I complained of these actions, {learned that she had been conspiring with others to oust me from my tenured position.21, Then, in the Fall 2017 semester, the severe and pervasive harassment by the Dean continued when the Dean informed me that 1 would no longer be able to teach graduate level courses. No reason was provided. Notably, I had been sucessfully teaching graduate level courses at the College for 32 years. 22. This action resulted in a meeting on November 14, 2017, date at which I was and HR Rep (collectively “the called into the Provost's office. There, the Provost, Dean, Ch College Representatives”), made ambiguous and unclear serious allegations against me, my integrity, and my teaching performance. 23. At this meeting, the College Representatives told me that I had to resign right then and there or else they would force an academic hearing to strip me of my tenure and to publically embarrass me and damage my reputation. | asked what the allegations were against me, they were not presented. But I was told by the Provost that written allegations would be shared with me. 24. I declined to resign and was permitted to continue my teaching responsibilities. ‘But I was told that I had to decide soon between their two options, and was strongly encouraged to resign. 25. consulted with legal counsel at this point. I understand that my legal counsel communicated with the College's legal counsel, who promised to share written allegations ‘against me. They were not shared until well after I was ultimately suspended, as explained below. 26. On November 27, 2017, 1 was again summoned to' the Provost's office for another mecting with the College Representatives. There, I was again told by the Provost that he was “100% Confident” that 1 would be dismissed by the committee that he would form and, therefore, I better resign. 27. responded by informing the College Representatives that my legal counsel was for an unknown reason, infuriated discussing the situation with the College's legal counsel. the College Representatives. At that moment, the Provost informed me that I was immediately 4ssuspended with pay for the remainder of the Fall 2017 semester. 28. _I'was not provided any reason for this suspension. I was not provided any written statement of my suspension, Rather, I felt that the Provost and the other College Representatives i their bullying behavior and hostile work environment, were simply seeking to conti 29. Indeed, the suspension was ordered in direct violation of the Faculty Statutes, ‘which provides for suspension of a tenured faculty member only if there is an immediate risk of harm to myself or others. No such risk was present and the College Representatives certainly did ‘not state that there was any such risk. 30. While I was on suspension, on or about November 28, 2017, the temporary professor who was instructing my classes for the remainder of the semester, who is younger than ‘me, Caucasian, and not Muslim, falsely stated to my students that I had been fired. This fact, while defamatory, is also a fact that demonstrates the College Representatives’ conspiracy to remove me for the above-stated discriminatory and retaliatory reasons. 31, When I was suspended I was banished from campus and had my access to my College email immediately cut off. Further, my suspension was publicly and defamatorily ‘announced at two meetings in the School of Business on or around the day it occurred. 32. I made several attempts to address the purported allegations internally, but no ‘meetings were conducted. I was never given a chance to tell my side of the story. I was suspended without due process. 33. To this date, the previously noted college officials have been vocal about me never returning to the College. The Provost and Dean have even hired a replacement professor on tenure track to replace me. The Provost of the College has stated on several instances that “he is 100% confident that I would not be returning.” 34. Thave done absolutely nothing wrong, yet | was bullied and suspended due to my national origin, religion, and age; and for complaining about this discrimination. 35. During the suspension, the College took no further action against me. My legal 254‘counsel timely inquired about my return to the classroom for the Spring 2018 semester. The College’s legal counsel refused to allow my return. | therefore filed an administrative grievance with the College. Upon information and belief, the Provost and President interfered and intimidated the Grievance Committee to the point of compelling the Grievance Committee to deny my suspension grievance for being untimely. However, [ understand that the Grievance Committee has grave concerns regarding my situation and desired investigating my claims further. Instead, the President and Provost stopped it. 36. I complained of the illegal discrimination and retaliation to the College. Because of those complaints, the College, the President, and the College Representatives further retaliated ‘against me by seeking to have the College's Rank and Tenure Committee recommend that I be terminated, 37. In doing so, the Provost and President blatantly intimidated the Rank and Tenure ‘Committee and violated my due process rights under the Faculty Statutes in many ways, First, the Provost refused to recuse himself from the Rank and Tenure proceeding as the Faculty Statutes dictate, Second, the Provost and President (who were both supposed to remain neutral in the proceeding pursuant to the Faculty Statutes) presented an “anonymous” report to the Rank and Tenure committee, which concluded with the express statements that both the President and Provost desired that I be terminated—all before I was afforded due process. 38. This was blatant retaliation against me for having complained of the prior discrimination and retaliation, The President and Provost had made up their mind that I was 39. The President and Provost succeeded in intimidating the Rank and Tenure Committee to recommend that a formal proceeding be commenced against me, At that time, the College informed me that I was never going to retum and demanded that I retire and accept a payout, My integrity and reputation would not allow me to agree to this proposal. 40. Therefore, I am now being further retaliated against by having an Ad HocCommittee decide whether I should be terminated or not. Notably, itis my understanding that such a committee has never been formed ever in the history of the College. Under Faculty Statutes the committee is supposed to be an impartial and objective hearing committee. However, at least one member of the committe is clearly biased toward the College. Further, the College has made reference to that fact that even if the Committee rules in my favor, the President and the Board of Trustees will nevertheless terminate me, which is in retaliation for me having had the ‘courage to stand up to their blatant discriminatory and retaliatory actions against me. 41, Further, the Committee intially tried to schedule the hearing during my religions holy month of Ramadan, 42, Indeed, my due process rights in preparation for this hearing are being trampled lupon because the College has already decided that I must leave because | complained of the discriminatory and retaliatory acts against me. They have already hired a replacement for me, who I understand is a Caucasian woman, younger than me, who is not Muslim, 43. Therefore, I charge St, John Fisher College with discrimination, hostile work environment, and retaliation due to my national origin, religion, and age in having me removed from the Faculty advisor role; suspending me from my position in the Fall 2017 and Spring 2018 semesters; refusing to allow me to retum for the Spring 2018 semester; denying me due process in their purported investigation of purported allegations against me; denying me due process in ‘the Rank and Tenure committee investigation; intimidating the Rank and Tenure Committee to recommend a formal hearing; and in denying me due process and a fair hearing by the Ad Hoc Com +. These charges are collective and individual against each person.Dated: June 7, 2018 Gttokilial haat ‘Merouane Lakebal-Ayat we Sworn to before me this 2 ~— day of Sua 2018 Cle nae ars Publie PETER J. GLENNON Notary Bubl, State New Yor, cualainiionce eur o/ Ccommisson Expires Soptamber 19;