An Auburn University professor is taking legal action against the school based on what he says is discrimination because of his race and national origin.

Joseph C. Majdalani filed a lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.

The document lists as defendants the university itself, the board of trustees, university president Steven Leath, provost Bill Hardgrave, former provost Timothy Boosinger, associate provost John Winn, dean of the College of Engineering Christopher Roberts, aerospace engineering department chair Brian Thurow, 2016 Senate Executive Committee chair-elect R. James Goldstein and 2016 Senate Executive Committee chair Lawrence Teeter.

In the 66-page complaint, Majdalani alleges that a group of his Caucasian colleagues refused to accept him as chair of the university’s aerospace engineering department, working against his efforts and not respecting his authority.

Majdalani was born in Lebanon, is of Lebanese descent and is of the Semitic race, according to the lawsuit. He was naturalized as an American citizen in 1995.

Majdalani was working as a tenured professor in advanced aerospace engineering at the University of Tennessee when he applied for and accepted the chair position for Auburn’s Aerospace Engineering Department in 2013.

The lawsuit claims that prior to Majdalani’s start date, members of the department faculty met with Roberts, who had hired Majdalani, and asked him to take back the job offer.

“During one meeting, faculty asked Dean Roberts to rescind the offer and he refused, but Dean Roberts told the meeting participants if they were not happy with Dr. Majdalani, they, i.e. the faculty, could give Dr. Majdalani a vote of no confidence and the university would remove him,” it reads. “As such, Dr. Majdalani’s hiring was an experiment.”

'His termination'

The complaint goes on to say that a group of his peers in the engineering department called Majdalani “inappropriate slurs based on his national origin,” excluded him from gatherings, canceled his classes, disrupted meetings and conferences he held, “plotted against him, and obscured their internal communications often leaving Dr. Majdalani off email chains of importance.”

The professors complained to the dean, the provost and associate provost about Majdalani’s performance as chair, the lawsuit claims. It names professors Brian Thurow, David Cicci, Robert “Stephen” Gross and Andrew Sinclair and says that “because of his race and/or national origin, (they) conspired to wrongly discredit Dr. Majdalani to bring about his removal from the chair position and his termination.”

As a result of their complaints, the lawsuit claims, Boosinger, Winn, Roberts, Thurow and others met to discuss the possibility of a no-confidence vote against Majdalani, his removal and replacement.

On Feb. 3, 2016, Majdalani was called to a meeting with the dean, where he was told faculty members including Cicci and Gross were not happy with his “management style,” according to the lawsuit.

In this meeting, Roberts gave Majdalani a choice between two options, the document says. The first option was for him to accept the Hugh and Loeda Endowed Chair, go on paid administrative leave as chair of the aerospace engineering department until May 15 of that year, sign a pre-drafted resignation letter on May 16, and continue to use summer funding to support his research and maintain his compensation.

The second option was to have his chair publicly taken involuntarily, have his salary reduced immediately, and continue as a professor, according to the lawsuit.

“Both scenarios resulted in Dr. Majdalani losing the chair position, as such, he was constructively discharged/demoted from that position contractually belonging to him without due process,” it reads. “Under duress, Dr. Majdalani chose the first option and signed the resignation letter drafted by Dean Roberts.”

Panel recommendation

In Sept. 2017, a hearing panel at the university voted to recommend Majdalani’s dismissal, the lawsuit states. The recommendation came after allegations surfaced that his conduct as a volunteer judge of technical papers in regional American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics competitions was professionally unethical.

The following month, the AIAA submitted letters to Leath “to support a reversal of the dismissal finding disproving the arguments levied against Dr. Majdalani,” the complaint reads.

Leath overturned the hearing panel’s dismissal recommendation, based on the lack of evidence to support its conclusion, according to the lawsuit.

In a statement emailed to the Opelika-Auburn News on Thursday, a spokesman for the university said, “Auburn will not publicly discuss personnel matters or pending litigation.”

Majdalani is currently a professor of aerospace engineering, according to Auburn University’s website. A staff directory of the Aerospace Engineering Department lists him as the Francis Chair, and it lists Thurow as the department chair.