Weathers v. Univ. Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill
| Decision Date | 18 November 2010 |
| Docket Number | 1:08CV847 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of North Carolina |
| Parties | ANDREA C. WEATHERS Plaintiff, v. UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL, HERBERT B. PETERSON, JONATHAN KOTCH, BARBARA K. RIMER, EDWARD M. FOSTER, SANDRA L. MARTIN Defendants. |
Plaintiff filed a Verified Second Amended Complaint (Doc. 2 9) naming as defendants the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Herbert B. Peterson, Jonathan Kotch, Barbara K. Rimer, Edward M. Foster, and Sandra L. Martin. Plaintiff's claims include employment discrimination in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and § 1983 (hereinafter "Count One") and employment discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (hereinafter "Title VII"), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et. seq. (hereinafter "Count Two") Plaintiff alleges that, as a result of Defendants'1 racially discriminatory conduct, she was denied reappointment and tenure. (Id. ¶ 4.)
On July 16, 2010, Defendants moved for summary judgment on both of Plaintiff's claims. (Defs.' Mot. Summ. J. (Doc. 63).) On August 18, 2010, Plaintiff filed a Memorandum in Opposition to Defendant's [sic] Motion for Summary Judgment. (Doc. 72.) Defendants filed a Reply on September 3, 2010. (Doc. 75.) Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment is now ripe for decision from the court. For the reasons set forth below, Defendants' Motion, for Summary Judgment will be granted.
The facts of this case, and all inferences drawn from those facts, are presented in the light most favorable to Dr. Weathers, the non-moving party. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255 (1986); U.S. v. Diebold, Inc., 369 U.S. 654, 655 (1962) (per curiam).2
On or about December 1, 2 001, Plaintiff Dr. Andrea C. Weathers (hereinafter "Dr. Weathers" or "Plaintiff"), an African-American female, began her employment with Defendant University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (hereinafter "UNC" or "University") as an assistant professor on the tenure track in the Department of Maternal and Child Health (hereinafter "MCH Department"), a division of the School of Public Health. Dr. Weathers holds a Doctor of Medicine from East Carolina University, a Master of Public Health, and a Doctor of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. (Id. ¶ 21.) At all relevant times, Dr. Weathers was the only African-American junior faculty member on the tenure track in the MCH Department. (Id. ¶ 9.)
When Dr. Weathers was first hired in December 2001, she was appointed to a standard probationary term of four years, from 2001 to 2005. (Id. ¶ 25.) Dr. Pierre Buekens was the Chair of the MCH Department at the time that Dr. Weathers joined the faculty. (Id. ¶ 26.) As the Department Chair, Dr. Beukens was Dr. Weathers' immediate supervisor. (Id. ¶ 6.)
On May 14, 2002, Dr. Beukens met with Dr. Weathers for her first annual review. (Buekens Dep. Ex. 44 (Doc. 70-2) 1.) Dr. Beukens praised Dr. Weathers for her publication record during the first semester of her employment at the University. (Id.)
During her first six months at UNC, Dr. Weathers wrote one (1) paper that was accepted for publication and had another article that was ready for submission. (Id.) Dr. Weathers also submitted one grant proposal to the Casey Foundation. (Id.) In his memorandum summarizing Dr. Weathers' first annual review, Dr. Beukens advised Dr. Weathers to "submit 2 to 4 manuscripts during the next year, and at least one proposal to a Federal Agency." (Id.)
In January 2003, Dr. Jonathan Kotch (hereinafter "Dr.. Kotch") assumed the position of Interim Chair of the MCH Department and thereby, the role of Dr. Weathers' immediate supervisor.3 At various times, Dr. Kotch attempted to assist Dr. Weathers by "encouraging productive interactions with other faculty members, making suggestions to increase the competitiveness of her grants, representing her at a team meeting of an externally-funded project at the Sheps Health Services Research Center, giving her an opportunity to develop a course entitled 'Health of Immigrant Children, ' inviting her to teach a recitation on minority health in [his] Child and Family Health Course (MHCH 211), attempting to facilitate a relationship with the Carolina Population Center, and forwarding announcements of fellowship opportunities to her attention."4 (Kotch Aff. (Doc. 67) ¶ 5, July 15, 2010.)
Nevertheless, at some point, Dr. Weathers' relationship with Dr. Kotch and the other faculty in the MCH Department began to deteriorate. Dr. Weathers attributes the chilling of her relationship with Dr. Kotch to his "racially discriminatory attitudes towards [her] and African Americans in general," which "permeated throughout the MCH Department and beyond."
In particular, Dr. Weathers asserts that she "endured... numerous racially-based comments" by various faculty and staff during her time at UNC.5 (Weathers Aff. (Doc. 2) ¶ 6.) For the purposes of this motion, this court will assume that all of the "racially-based comments" alleged by Dr. Weathers in her affidavit were, in fact, made. (Id.) On December 12, 2002, when Dr. Weathers and Dr. Kotch were on their way to a presentation, Dr. Kotch pointed to a picture of a jazz group on his office door and mentioned that he had once colored one of the white members in "black face," but that "'the students complained so much that they made [him] take it down.'" (Id. ¶ 6(c).) On another occasion in 2002, Sue Cotcamp, the Human Resources Administrator for the MCH Department, while helping Dr. Weathers fill out some paperwork, commented, "You know you're on minority money." (Id. ¶ 6(b).) During a faculty meeting later in Dr. Weathers' first probationary appointment at UNC, a discussion took place "regarding the availability of money from the Provost's office for hiring diverse faculty." (Id. ¶ 6(a).) In the context of that conversation, Dr. Kotch stated, "We don't want another one of those," and looked at Dr. Weathers.6 (Id.) In approximately May 2004, Dr. Kotch made the following comments in an email response to Dr. Weathers' inquiries about the MCH Department's policy on student advising:
1) "There is only one faculty [member] in the department that I am aware of (you) for whom field training seems to be an issue;"
2) "I think engaging the faculty as a whole in an exercise to smooth out a process which is working well for everyone else would not be welcome by our colleagues and is unnecessary,-"
3) "I think it is an Andrea problem, not a departmental problem,-"
4) "I am advising, or guiding, you now that you are too picky;"
5) "You are the outlier among all the faculty in the matter of strict adherence to the written Field Training guidelines;" and,
6) (Id. ¶ 6(d).)
Finally, Dr. Weathers avers that she received "disrespectful and disparaging emails from Dr. Edward Michael Foster" (hereinafter "Dr. Foster") between March 1, 2007, and March 14, 2007, (Id. ¶ 6(1).) His statements included remarks, such as:
1) "I ignored this [email] and suspect others just hit delete,-"
2)
3) "If you make things unpleasant (e.g. initiating a 20-minute discussion in faculty meetings of why we don't have minutes when it's obviously due to staff turnover), no one will want to participate in other activities with you;"
4)
5) "Rather than telling us that we ignore your interests, you might spend some time thinking about how to get students with your interest into the department;"
6) "I have responded to Andrea via the group rather than directly because we are all affected by these demoralizing and frustrating meetings;"
7)
(Id. ¶ 6(1).)
Because her first probationary appointment was scheduled to end in 2 0 05, Dr. Weathers came up for reappointment in 2004. (Kotch Aff. Ex. 3 (Doc. 67-2) 1-2, July 15, 2010.) The original deadline for the submission of her reappointment application was set for April 1, 2004. (Id. at 1.) In February 2004, Dr. Weathers requested an extension of the deadline, and she was granted until June 8, 2004, to submit her application. (Id.)
On July 1, 2004, Dr. Herbert B. Peterson (hereinafter "Dr. Peterson") replaced Dr. Kotch as the Chair of the MCH Department. (Peterson Aff. (Doc. 66) ¶ 1, July 15, 2010.) Dr. Weathers informed Dr. Peterson that "she was having difficulty in developing research collaborations." (Id. ¶ 3.) In response, Dr. Peterson offered to help and asked Marcia Roth, the Director for Planning and Development, to assist him in helping Dr. Weathers.7 (Id.) By late July 2004, Ms. Roth had identified a grant opportunity in Dr. Weathers' area of research (children's migrant health) and had offered to help Dr. Weathers apply for the grant. (Id.) Over the following months, Ms. Roth developed a list of key contacts related to Dr....
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