Biologist Sues Cornell University Claiming Anti-White Hiring Discrimination

A biologist is suing Cornell University over allegations that the school engaged in illegal race-based hiring and intentionally excluding white candidates from consideration, according to news coverage.

The complaint, which was filed Monday in a federal district court in New York, alleges that Cornell violated federal law during a faculty hiring process in 2020, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday. Internal emails from the Ivy League university’s ecology and evolutionary biology department in December 2020 allegedly showed that in an effort to secure a “diversity hire,” the department extended invitations to prospective candidates selected from a list of “underrepresented minority scholars,” the outlet reported.

The plaintiff, Colin Wright, was serving as a postdoctoral researcher at Pennsylvania State University at the time, the Washington Post reported. Wright, who is white, claims he was seeking an academic role and was qualified for the position at Cornell, which he alleges the school filled without publicly posting about the job opening — as is required by university policy — according to the outlet.

Attorneys with the conservative America First Policy Institute (AFPI), who brought the lawsuit against Cornell, allege that internal documents from the school compiled a list of potential candidates who were categorized by their race, ethnicity, disability status and sexual orientation, the Post reported. Emails reportedly suggest the department was intentionally attempting to bypass having a competitive search and intended to contact candidates on an individual basis until one accepted the role, according to the outlet.

Wright did not respond to the