Dr. Sean Wang, a Chinese-American assistant professor, is suing Texas Southern Methodist University for discriminating and favoring only Indians. The lawsuit was filed last year but came to light after independent journalist Chris Brunet reported it. Wang claimed in the lawsuit that systemic discrimination at the university resulted in him being denied tenure in 2024 while three Indian professors in the accounting department were offered the same tenure.According to the lawsuit, the school told Wang that he was not a good fit and that he needed more citations and more visibility. He was called an “unfit” at least 13 times, but one Indian colleague, Sorabh Thomar, received a positive mid-term evaluation from the department chair, also Indian, the lawsuit says.Dr. Hemang Desai, the nominating chair, said Wang learned from Desai on Nov. 19, 2024, that the department vote was negative (3-1), with all three Indian staff members voting against his tenure, citing a lack of outstanding performance, while the only non-Indian staff member voted in favor, according to the lawsuit.Wang said that from the beginning, Desai treated him differently and had higher expectations of him than his Indian colleagues.“There has been a systemic pattern of discrimination in tenure decisions in the accounting department since at least 2006, when Hemang Desai (who is of Indian origin) became a full professor in SMU’s Cox School of Business. Of the Indian-origin candidates who met SMU’s productivity standards of at least four top publications, 100% (2) were tenured: Neil Bhattacharya in 2008 and Gauri Bhat in 2008. In 2020. Of the non-Indian candidates (white and Chinese) who meet the prescribed productivity standards of at least four top publications, SMU did not support any non-Indian candidates for tenure, including Mina Pizzini, Chris Hogan, Jing Pan, Jeff Yu andDr. Wang. This pattern is consistent with an ancestry-based preference for Indian-American candidates rather than a preference for non-Indian candidates,” the lawsuit states.
“Indian faculty have quality offices with beautiful views”
When offices were reassigned in the department’s new building in the spring of 2024, Indian faculty were assigned to prime offices with scenic views, while East Asian faculty were assigned to the “Chinese ghetto” down the hall, the lawsuit alleges.The university denies all allegations in its response document and says Dr. Wang is not entitled to any relief.