University claims requirements are part of civil rights and federal funding compliance
Penn State University recently asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit from one of its employees, a winemaking scholar who alleges she was denied two promotions because she did not conform to “prescribed DEI orthodoxy.”
The public university filed the motion to dismiss late last week, claiming its “diversity training hours” are not ideological but instead are linked to requirements tied to its federal funding, WJAC News 6 reports.
Molly Kelly, who sued the university in February, is an extension educator and scholar of enology, the science of winemaking, at Penn State’s Extension School. Kelly has been teaching at the university since 2018, and is still employed there, according to her bio.
In its July 24 motion, Penn State argued that the court should dismiss her lawsuit because “Kelly saying she has worked with LGBTQ+ and Greek-Orthodox businesses does not constitute diversity training,” according to WJAC:
Penn State says its receipt of federal funding, including Department of Agriculture grants, is contingent on civil rights compliance requirements and civil rights straining is a critical aspect.
The university is asking for the entire suit to be dismissed and says if that’s not the case, Penn State president Neeli Bendapudi, whose listed as a co-defendant, should be dismissed from the suit.
Kelly is represented by the Liberty Justice Center, whose senior counsel Reilly Stephens previously told The College Fix, “The University’s promotion decision was explicitly grounded on participation in an ideological program.”
“Dr. Kelly was not denied on the merits of her substantive work, but on her failure to advance a particular political agenda,” Stephens said.
Kelly’s lawsuit alleges a university promotions committee denied her a promotion twice in 2024 for not complying with diversity, equity, and inclusion goals, The Fix reported earlier this year:
The decision against promoting her was not due to lack of professional accomplishments, which include the securing of grant funding, numerous peer-reviewed articles, and the development of educational programs for the university, according to the lawsuit.
The committee explicitly stated that its denial was due to “[m]inimum diversity training hours,” and Kelly’s use of an “old affirmative action and non-discrimination statement,” the lawsuit alleges.
The committee also mentioned “no evidence of efforts to reach underserved audiences” even after she did “site visits and provid[ed] technical expertise to LGBTQ and Greek Orthodox-owned businesses,” according to the case.
Separately, a former English professor at Penn State’s Abington campus also is suing the university alleging it subjected him, a white man, to a racially hostile work environment and retaliated against him after he objected to diversity trainings.
MORE: Penn State law school forces students to confront ‘systemic racism’: complaint
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