Delaware State settles discrimination claim - Noteworthy news: from staff and news wire reports - Margaret McKay; Freda M. Barrett; Kathleen Carter; white professors involvedin lawsuits against college - Brief Article

Black Issues in Higher Education, March 14, 2002

DOVER, DEL.

Attorneys for Delaware State University and a former professor at the historically Black university have reached a settlement in her discrimination lawsuit.

Margaret McKay, a White political science professor stripped of her tenure and dismissed from the university last year, alleged that the school discriminated against her based on her race, age and gender.

The lawsuit was scheduled for trial last month in federal court in Wilmington, but attorneys agreed to settle the case. Neither side would disclose the terms of the settlement, and the university admitted no wrongdoing.

"The matter has been resolved amicably," DSU attorney David Wilks says.

McKay, in her early 70s, now teaches in upstate New York. Her attorney, Mark Frost of Philadelphia, declined to discuss the settlement.

In November, Delaware State settled a similar discrimination lawsuit filed by a White woman who worked in the financial aid office. Freda M. Barrett, discharged in 1999 and replaced by a Black woman, claimed she was denied privileges given to Black colleagues, blamed for their mistakes and singled out for unfair treatment.

Wilks declined to say why the university settled Barrett's lawsuit.

Meanwhile, a third discrimination lawsuit against the school appears headed for trial in April. Kathleen Carter, a White education professor denied tenure, claims she was the victim of racial discrimination at Delaware State. She now works at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in Pomona, N.J.

Carter was hired at Delaware State in 1993 and appointed chairwoman of the education department in 1995. She alleges that after her appointment, she was told she was usurping Blacks' right to govern themselves and that Whites in the department were trying to make Blacks look bad.