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Rachel Tudor, Assistant Professor of English at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, was allegedly denied tenure and terminated because of her gender identity, Raw Story reports.

Tudor was recommended for tenure and a promotion by her colleagues last year. According to university policy, the president is obliged to honor faculty recommendations, except in cases where there is a "compelling reason" or "exceptional circumstances" to reject a recommendation. However, the Vice President of Academic Affairs issued an unprecedented memo prohibiting Tudor from applying for tenure, and even after a faculty committee unanimously ruled that Tudor should be allowed to apply, the President refused to honor their decision.

"President Minks and Vice President of Academic Affairs, Doug McMillan, have refused to meet with me in person," Tudor said. "In addition, it has been reported to me from reliable sources that Doug McMillan is committed to severing me from the university because he disapproves of my gender identity."

Claire Potter, a professor of American studies and history at Wesleyan University, told Daily O'Collegian that the dean and vice president deem Tudor's "lifestyle" inappropriate. After transitioning, Tudor had apparently been told that “she could only use the single handicap bathroom located quite a distance from her office.” And vice president MacMillan reportedly “openly asserted that Tudor’s lifestyle ‘offends his Baptist beliefs.’ ”