(The Center Square) – Temple University changed an event for educators who identify as Black, Indigenous and people of color to include white staff as well after a federal civil rights complaint was filed against it by Dr. Mark Perry of Do No Harm.
On Nov. 14, Perry filed a complaint against Temple with the Philadelphia Office for Civil Rights for holding “an event that illegally excludes non-BIPOC teaching assistants and faculty based on their race,” and notified the university’s president, counsel and other offices of his complaint, according to emails obtained by The Center Square.
Perry is a senior fellow at Do No Harm, an association of medical professionals, students, patients, and policymakers who are critical of the incorporation of identity-focused politics into health care approaches. He’s filed nearly 1,000 civil rights complaints and 2,000 Title VI and IX violations at more than 850 colleges and universities.
Temple’s event, “Can We Really Talk? Session 3: An Intergenerational Conversation about Underrepresented Faculty Belonging and Mentoring at Temple,” originally invited “new faculty and teaching assistants who identify as BIPOC to join senior faculty in a conversation about belonging and mentoring,” according to Perry’s email.
The event’s description has since been updated to read “new faculty and teaching assistants” are invited, with no mention of race.
“Just as you wouldn’t sponsor, promote, and host an illegal Whites-only, no-BIPOCs allowed segregated Event exclusively for non-BIPOC staff, how do you justify a BIPOC-only, no-Whites allowed Event?” Perry asked the school by email.
He pointed to discrimination protections enshrined in Title VI that apply to all races, as well as the university’s own policy, and asked for the event to be cancelled or inclusive of white participants.
After this story initially published Tuesday morning, Temple emailed a statement to The Center Square saying the event was planned to be open to all staff from the beginning.
“The Temple event at issue is intended to be inclusive, intentionally welcoming all, including underrepresented faculty, to participate in ways that may not always be available to everyone,” Steve Orbanek, director of Communications at Temple University, said. “Dr. Perry contacted Temple with his concerns about the event and we appreciate his outreach. Since Dr. Perry misunderstood the program description, we made sure to modify it so that it is clear that all faculty are welcome at this event.”
Temple’s event is set for Wednesday, Nov. 20. The session will discuss “how all faculty, and especially faculty from underrepresented groups, such as BIPOC faculty, have access to the kinds of mentorship opportunities that their peers receive,” according to its description.
The event is co-sponsored by Temple’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, Advocacy and Leadership.
