Carter v. Chi. State Univ.
| Decision Date | 01 August 2013 |
| Docket Number | No. 10 C 321,10 C 321 |
| Parties | Tollie Carter, Plaintiff, v. Chicago State University, Bijesh Tolia, and Farhad Simyar, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois |
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
Tollie Carter brings this suit against his employer, Chicago State University ("CSU"), and two former supervisors, Farhad Simyar and Bijesh Tolia, alleging various acts of unlawful discrimination and retaliation from 2008 through 2011. Carter asserts claims under (i) the Family Medical Leave Act ("FMLA"), 29 U.S.C. § 101 et seq., (ii) 42 U.S.C. § 1981 ("Section 1981"), (iii) Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ("Title VII"), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., and (iv) the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq. Presently before the Court is Defendants' motion for summary judgment. R. 88. For the following reasons, Defendants' motion is granted in part and denied in part.
Carter takes a scattershot approach in this case, similar to a prior case he filed against these same defendants involving various conduct from 2006 through 2007. He essentially alleges that every employment action he does not like is theresult of some form of unlawful discrimination and retaliation. Most of these claims ultimately fail, but worse, they make finding potentially meritorious claims in the thicket more difficult. There is one set of claims where Carter has at least demonstrated that a genuine issue of material fact exists for trial—retaliation claims under the FMLA, Section 1981, Title VII, and the ADA involving the April-May 2008 appointment process for department chair.
Carter is an Associate Professor of Accounting at CSU. DSOF ¶ 1. He began teaching at CSU in 1986 and received tenure in 1992. Carter Dep. at 37; PSOF ¶ 7. Carter is a Certified Public Accountant ("CPA") and has an undergraduate degree in accounting and an MBA in accounting and finance, both from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Carter Dep. at 7-8. He does not have a Ph.D. Id. at 7.
CSU's College of Business is made up of two departments: (i) Accounting and Finance, the department primarily at issue here (the "Department"); and (ii) Management, Marketing, and Information Systems (the "MMIS Department"). PSOF ¶ 15. Defendant Simyar was the Dean of the College of Business from mid-2005 through January 19, 2010. DSOF ¶ 5. Defendant Tolia was the Chair of the Department from 2006 through September 2007 and served as acting Chair until November 1, 2007. DSOF ¶ 3; PR ¶ 3. From September 2007 until June 30, 2010, Tolia was the Associate Dean for the College of Business. DSOF ¶ 3.
At all relevant times, the Department had nine professors: four African-American males (including Carter), three African-American females, one Asian male, and one Hispanic male. DSOF ¶ 9.
In the spring semester of 2008, Carter was teaching four courses. DSOF ¶ 38. On January 22, 2008, a week or two into the semester, Carter requested FMLA leave to care for his ailing mother. DSOF ¶ 33; PR ¶ 33. CSU granted the request and Carter took more than seven weeks of FMLA leave, from January 29 through March 20, 2008. DSOF ¶ 33; PR ¶ 33. In Carter's absence, CSU hired a part-time professor to cover at least one of his courses and used other professors in the Department to cover his remaining courses. DSOF ¶ 38; PR ¶ 38.
When Carter returned on March 21, 2008, six or seven weeks remained in the semester.2 At that point, CSU decided to let Carter's replacements finish out the semester, stating that it would be in the students' best interests to avoid further disruption. DSOF ¶ 40. As a temporary assignment for the rest of the semester, CSU asked Carter to prepare and improve master course outlines. Id. ¶ 41. After Carter objected, CSU reduced the number of outlines that Carter would need to prepare from thirteen to four. Id. ¶ 45. Notably, those were the four courses thatCarter had been teaching that semester, Carter Dep. at 85 & Ex. 10, and would teach in the future. Jefferson Dep. Ex. 4 at 1111. At the time, Carter thanked CSU administrators "for their support in revising th[e] assignment to make it a reasonable one." DSOF ¶ 46. In his deposition in this case, Carter again conceded that the outline assignment he completed "was reasonable" "[u]nder the circumstances." Carter Dep. at 111. While working on the course outlines, Carter's title, seniority, and base salary did not change. DSOF ¶ 41; PR ¶ 41.
From 1983 through 1997, CSU allowed employees to accrue payable sick days (CSU changed its policy in 1998). DSOF ¶¶ 24-25. Prior to his FMLA leave, Carter had 107.5 payable sick days that accrued under CSU's old policy. Id. ¶ 26; Carter Dep. Ex. 14 at 1130-31.3 In September 2008, six months after his return from FMLA leave, Carter received a payroll record showing that his payable sick day balance was zero. PR ¶¶ 26, 36-37; Carter Dep. Ex. 14 at 1132. The exact circumstances behind this particular record are unclear, but there is no genuine dispute that the record was an error and that Carter still had 107.5 payable sick days after he returned from FMLA leave. DSOF ¶¶ 36-37; Mays Aff. ¶¶ 9-12.
The Chair of the Department is appointed through a multi-step process. DSOF ¶ 19. First, the Department's faculty holds a vote to recommend a candidate. Id. ¶ 20. Next, the Dean of the College of Business reviews the faculty vote anddecides, based on the needs and best interests of the Department, if he feels that the professor chosen by the faculty vote should become Chair. Id. Finally, the Dean forwards the results of the faculty vote along with his own recommendation to the Provost. Id. ¶ 21. There, the Provost reviews the information and meets with CSU's President to discuss the appointment. Id. CSU's President ultimately has the final say over who will be appointed chair of each department, but usually defers to the Dean's recommendation. Id.; PSOF ¶ 22; DR ¶ 22.
In April 2008, the Department began the process to appoint a Chair. Earlier, Tolia had stepped down as Chair after becoming the Associate Dean for the College of Business. Barbara Roper was serving as acting Chair. DSOF ¶ 47.
Carter and Ernest Coupet (African-American male), another professor in the Department, put their names into the selection process. Id. ¶ 48. In the faculty vote, Carter and Coupet tied with four votes each. Id. After the vote, Coupet voluntarily withdrew from consideration in order to promote unity within the Department. Id. ¶ 49. Coupet's withdrawal left Carter as the only candidate.
Simyar was not willing to support Carter, however, and tried to persuade Coupet to reconsider. PSOF ¶ 19. Simyar told Coupet that Carter was not an option and that he would look outside the Department to fill the position if Coupet would not take it. Id. Somewhat reluctantly, Coupet agreed to re-enter the race, id., and Simyar recommended Coupet to CSU's President, Elnora Daniels. Although the Provost had some reservations about Coupet's commitment based on past refusals to accept administrative jobs, id. ¶ 25, Daniels followed Simyar's recommendationand selected Coupet as Chair in May 2008. The Provost's concerns were apparently prophetic. Coupet resigned as Chair after about two months. Id. ¶ 28.
To explain his lack of support for Carter's candidacy, Simyar cited a policy—either of CSU itself or Daniels—requiring that department chairs have Ph.D.'s. Jefferson Dep. Ex. 7 at 1207-08; Simyar Dep. at 29-32. Nonetheless, around the same time, Simyar recommended and Daniels appointed Zafar Bokhari Chair of the MMIS Department—the other half of the College of Business—even though his Ph.D. was from an unaccredited institution and was not officially recognized by CSU. PSOF ¶ 26; DR ¶ 26. Coupet's predecessor and successor as Chairs of the Department—Roper and Atha Hunt—also did not have Ph.D.'s, although each served only as temporary, acting Chairs. PSOF ¶¶ 18, 30; DR ¶ 28. In 2008, a few other department chairs also did not have Ph.D.'s, including in the Art and Design, Occupational Therapy, and Music Departments. DSOF ¶ 53.
In November 2008, CSU appointed Hunt as acting Chair to fill the vacancy left by Coupet. PSOF ¶ 28; DR ¶ 28. There is no evidence in the record indicating that Carter expressed any interest in the acting Chair position at that time.
CSU offers its faculty the opportunity to teach summer courses for additional pay. DSOF ¶ 10. Courses are generally split between two six-week sessions. Id. Each department chair is responsible for matching up professors with available courses, subject to review by the dean of the college and a university-wide summer school committee. Id. ¶ 16; PR ¶ 16. A professor must submit a request in order tobe eligible for assignments, although if no one timely applies to teach a particular course, CSU would assign it to a professor who applied after the deadline or not at all. DSOF ¶12; PR ¶ 12; Tolia Dep. at 52. Professors are not guaranteed courses—availability is contingent on budget, program need, student interest, and the department's rotation list. DSOF ¶ 11. The rotation list changes from year to year based on prior assignments, with some preference given to professors within four years of retirement. Id. ¶¶ 13-14. Carter was not within four years of retirement during the summers of 2008-11. Carter Dep. Ex. 2 ().
On September 14, 2007, Carter timely requested to teach Accounting 110 (Intro to Financial Accounting) and Accounting 111 (Intro to Managerial Accounting) in the summer of 2008. DSOF ¶ 27. Although Carter preferred to teach both classes during the first summer session, id., Accounting 110 and 111 are sequential courses. The...
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