The former Texas A&M-Qatar professors accused the university administration of sex-based discrimination and retaliation.

Former professors at the Qatar branch of Texas A&M university have filed separate lawsuits claiming sex-based discrimination in the United States.

Dr. Sheel Athreya, an Associate Professor of Anthropology and the only woman with a tenure at the institute, filed the lawsuit through her attorneys Wiley Walsh, Wiley Wheeler, and Rob Wiley, P.C. on 6 July.

The lawsuit states the Dean of the Qatar branch, César O. Malavé failed to renew her contract a week after she relocated her family to the region. Dr. Athreya claims that the reasons she was given were “conflicting and nonsensical.”

Her lawsuit claims the dean “makes women feel uncomfortable and unsupported. Eleven or twelve female faculty have left since his arrival and five or six specifically due to Dean Malavé’s treatment”.

Similarly, on August 9, Dr. Joseph Daniel Ura, a former Chair of the Liberal Arts Program at the Qatar campus, filed another lawsuit in which he alleged he was terminated as a reprisal.

His lawsuit claims that the dean of the programme took retaliatory action after he reported possible discriminatory treatment towards Dr. Athreya, Dr. Bounds, and Dr. Eslami.

These lawsuits follow a much-publicised scandal in Texas A&M’s home campus last month, in which the university president resigned over the controversy of failed plans to hire a journalism professor.

Both ongoing lawsuits have been put forth at courts in the Southern District of Texas that oversees the jurisdiction where the home campus is located.

‘Valid business reasons’

In a statement to Doha News, Texas A&M’s Marketing and Communications department denied wrongful treatment.

“Texas A&M University had valid business reasons for the management decisions relating to Dr. Ura and Dr. Athreya,” the statement read.

“We understand they are not happy with certain decisions affecting them or the academic changes at the Qatar engineering campus, but those decisions were not based on any discriminatory or other unlawful reasons.”

Dr. Athreya, who has worked as a professor at TAMU for 20 years, is a distinguished professor of anthropology. She is a recipient of the Chancellor’s EDGE Fellowship and was selected by the President of TAMU as a Presidential Impact Fellow in 2019.

Before joining the Qatar campus, Dr. Athreya claims she was told the initial contracts would typically be for two years, whereas the renewal process would be pro format.

After teaching online for a year because of the pandemic, Athreya and her family relocated to Qatar in August 2021. They sold or stored most of their belongings, and Athreya’s husband quit his job and was hired on by his former employer as a contractor, without health or retirement benefits, in order to work remotely.

However, eight days after Dr. Athreya arrived in Doha, Dean Malavé informed her that her contract would not be renewed.

“The shared assumption was present on the main campus: interviews with any of my immediate supervisors will confirm that they were all completely shocked at my non-renewal, never having heard of such a thing before,” Dr. Athreya said in a statement to Doha News.  

By the time Dr. Athreya started her two-year contract in July 2020, Dr. Eslami, another woman in the faculty who had expressed complaints, had allegedly “been forced out,” leaving Dr. Athreya as “the only woman with tenure, one of two women in research-engaged positions (tenured/tenure track or rolling contract/track) promoted past assistant professor and one of only four women in a research engaged position at any rank,” she explained.

The lawsuit alleges that the reason given for contract non-renewal was continuously changing.

According to the lawsuit, Dean Malavé said TAMUQ did not need to teach an Anthropology course as students could take the course elsewhere in Qatar Foundation’s universities. However, Dr. Athreya argues that such a suggestion was logistically impossible.

On a later date, the lawsuit alleges that the dean said he could not renew contracts because “he did not have any more full-time positions available at TAMUQ.” Dr. Athreya argues that there are open positions at TAMUQ to this day.

The lawsuit also alleges that the dean told TAMU’s Office of Risk, Ethics, and Compliance that he did not renew Dr. Athreya’s contract because he only ever intended for her to have a two-year contract.

Dr. Athreya disputes this claim because she was told explicitly that the position would be long-term and that it didn’t make financial sense to move her to Qatar for a year.

“In the original exit interviews, these women repeatedly cited a pervasive culture of sexism, led by Dr. Malavé, as one of the reasons for their departure,” claimed Dr Athereya in the lawsuit.

“Seventy percent of the female faculty hired during that time at TAMUQ have left,” the lawsuit added.

Possible ‘retaliation‘

At the beginning of 2021, Dr. Ura expressed similar concerns that Dr. Cesar Malavé may be discriminating against women. His lawsuit against the university alleges the presence of retaliation for reporting illegal sex discrimination and veteran-status discrimination.

In his lawsuit, Dr Ura claims that his concern grew from actions that Dean Malavé took against Dr. Athereya, Dr. Bounds, and Dr Elsami.

As Program Chair, he was involved in informing Dr. Athreya that her contract won’t be renewed. Meanwhile, Dr. Ura alleges he was also asked to issue Dr. Bounds a non-renewal notice for a controversy involving Dr Bound’s pro-Israel beliefs. Additionally, Dr. Elsami, the previous Program Chair, had informed Dr. Ura of previous discrimination she had faced.

On 27 September 2021, Dr. Ura filed a report at the home campus to the Office of Ethics and Compliance. On 18 October 2021, Dean Malavé, after returning to Qatar, asked Dr Ura to resign as Program Chair.

The lawsuit alleges that Dean Malavé’s reasoning for the firing was “because he had a vision for the Liberal Arts program that he did not need Dr. Ura to carry out.”

Dr Ura shared the cause finding document from the EEOC to Doha News.

In it Texas A&M argued that the non-renewal of contracts was based on Dr Ura missing key performance indicators. The document states that administration had disagreements with Dr Ura, who had shown a lack of support to TAMUQ’s new direction.

The new direction in question is the major upheaval that followed Dr Ura’s departure including significant restructuring of courses and faculty positions to implement “teaching, service, and pedagogical innovation.” This includes doing away with rolling contracts and research roles.

However, “it is undisputed that the charging party engaged in protected activity and, approximately three weeks later, was removed from the position of Chair to which he had been appointed to less than two months earlier,” read the document.

The findings state “evidence supports a causal connection between the charging party’s complaints and his removal.”

The lawsuit also claims that the dean had complaints that Dr. Ura insisted on “assigning teachers their normal course load unless they received extra compensation for additional classes, that he had asked the Dean of Faculties about the scope of Dean Malavé’s ability to assign course loads, and that he started the investigation with Dr. Bounds.”

Dr. Ura had reported Dean Malavé for “retaliation” to Texas A&M’s Office of Ethics and Compliance. He had also filed a charge to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The findings state “evidence supports a causal connection between the charging party’s complaints and his removal.”

This is an ongoing case and updates will be made accordingly.