BEAUMONT – A Texas appellate court has granted immunity to Lamar University in a lawsuit brought by a professor, who alleges he was denied tenure because he opposed the Graduate Record Examinations on racial grounds.
Steve Jenkins was working for Lamar University where he was elected to serve as chairman of the Department of Educational Leadership in December 2010. At the time of his appointment, Jenkins was recommended for tenure.
He was forced to resign the position in 2013 due to a medical condition but continued to participate in his non-administrative duties and filed for a promotion to the rank of full professor with its accompanying tenure status.
Although a majority of the university's tenured faculty voted in favor of Jenkins' tenure and promotion, three people, including his dean, opposed it.
Jenkins claims the votes cast against him were due to his opposition of the college's requirement that its student graduate applicants successfully complete the GRE.
Jenkins opposed Lamar’s use of the GRE because he claims it is an inherently racist test that the university used as a threshold discriminatory entry requirement to exclude or limit downstream employment of minority professional educator administrators in Texas public schools.
A lawsuit soon followed and Lamar responded by filing a plea to the jurisdiction, asserting that Jenkins’s retaliation claim under the Texas Commission on Human
Rights Act is based on an admission practice to a graduate program and not on an unlawful discriminatory employment practice.
The trial court granted the university’s plea but also granted Jenkins leave to amend his petition, court records show.
Jenkins filed an amended petition alleging that the university had retaliated against him for opposing the College of Education’s discriminatory admission practice of using the GRE to deprive qualified female and minority instructors the opportunity to teach at the university
An amended plea to the jurisdiction was denied, prompting Lamar to file an appeal last June, court records show.
On Jan. 11, the Ninth Court of Appeals found the university’s immunity from suit is not waived because Jenkins’ constitutional claims are facially invalid, reversing the trial court and dismissing Jenkins’ claims with prejudice.
“As a public employee, Jenkins was required to show that he spoke as a citizen, rather than as an employee of the University pursuant to his official duties,” the opinion states. “The critical question is whether the speech at issue is itself ordinarily within the scope of the employee’s duties.
“Our review of the record shows that Jenkins’s pleadings establish that the ‘speech’ at issue was made pursuant to his official duties as Chairman of the
Department of Educational Leadership, and thus his speech falls outside the ambit of free-speech protection.”
Larry Watts in Missouri City represents Jenkins.
Judge Donald Floyd, 172nd District Court, presided over the trial court proceedings.
Jefferson County District Court case number: E196-060
Appeals case No. 09-17-00213-CV