On February 8, 2006, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the Board of Trustees for Southern Illinois University (SIU) under 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq. ("Title VII") in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. The Department of Justice asked the court for injunctive relief, alleging that the defendant had violated Title VII by discriminating against non-specified minorities on the basis of race and white males on the basis of race and gender.

The plaintiffs alleged that the Proactive Recruitment of Multicultural Professionals for Tomorrow ("PROMPT"), the Bridge to the Doctorate ("BRIDGE"), and the Graduate Dean's fellowship programs were each only open to members of "underrepresented minority groups"--namely, Hispanics, African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Alaskan Natives, and Pacific Islanders as well as women. These discriminatory practices, they argued, amounted to employment discrimination against persons not members of those groups, on the basis of race, national origin, and/or sex.

The day after the lawsuit was filed, Judge J. Phil Gilbert approved and entered a consent decree whereby SIU agreed to hire, employ, compensate, provide terms, conditions and privileges of employment to, persons for any paid fellowship position without discriminating on the basis of race, national origin or sex. In addition, the SIU Board agreed to provide mandatory training to all academic recruiters and employees in recruiting activities regarding Title VII’s prohibitions against discrimination within 6 months. There were also additional records and reporting requirements in the consent decree. The consent decree was scheduled to dissolve at the end of two years from February 9, 2006.

On December 2, 2008, Judge Gilbert terminated this case pursuant to the consent decree. The case is now closed.

Jane Wu - 10/16/2007
Sichun Liu - 03/16/2019


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