An Indian-origin professor from Babson College, situated in Wellesley, Massachusetts, US, has filed a lawsuit against the business school, alleging gender and racial discrimination. "Babson favours white and male faculty and predominantly reserves awards and privileges for them," says the complaint filed in the US District Court in Boston.
According to a report by IANS, Lakshmi Balachandra, an associate professor of entrepreneurship, said that despite her research record, expressed interest, and service to the college, she was denied numerous leadership positions and opportunities for more time to conduct research and write. The matter was mentioned in The Boston Globe.
As a consequence, Balachandra alleged that she lost career opportunities and faced economic losses, emotional distres and harm to her reputation. She also complained of mistreatment and administrators' failure to investigate her concerns.
The professor, who joined Babson's faculty in 2012, directly labelled Andrew Corbett, Professor and former chair of the college's entrepreneurship division as one of the "primary direct perpetrators of the discriminatory work environment". In her lawsuit, she stated that Corbett often lost his temper with her and other women staff.
The suit further notes that he only allowed her to teach required courses in entrepreneurship despite her requests to teach electives, which she had taught previously at MIT Sloan School of Management and Harvard Business School. The professor also alleges that Corbett, in an annual review, said that Balachandra's teaching was "disorganised" and that she was "not a great teacher", after consulting student evaluations.
Such reviews, according to Balachandra, are widely known to be biased and problematic. The professor said that when she tried to discuss the reviews with Corbett, he "became hostile and began yelling, stating that she had no right to question his judgment", as per IANS.
While Corbett could not be reached for comment, a Babson spokesperson told The Boston Globe, "We look forward to addressing this through the legal process, adding that it "takes concerns or complaints seriously and has well-established protocols and resources in place to thoroughly investigate them".
Balachandra has also filed a charge of discrimination with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, according to her attorney Monica Shah. She is currently on leave for a fellowship at the National Science Foundation and is seeking unspecified damages.