A white male former UIC professor has sued the school for racial discrimination, claiming he was targeted for retaliation and fired for voicing concerns about allegedly illegal anti-white racially discriminatory hiring and career advancement policies and programs at Illinois' second largest public university.
On Feb. 10, Stephen Kleinschmit filed a lawsuit in Chicago federal court against the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). The lawsuit also names as defendants Timothy L. Killeen, president of the University of Illinois System; and UIC Chancellor Marie Lynn Miranda, both sued in their official capacities as executives overseeing UIC.
Kleinschmit is represented in the action by attorneys from the Liberty Justice Center, of Chicago.
Reilly Stephens
| Liberty Justice Center
“The University of Illinois Chicago repeatedly engaged in blatant acts of racial discrimination, then added illegal retaliation to the mix to avoid accountability for its unlawful behavior,” said LJC senior Counsel Reilly Stephens, an attorney representing Kleinschmit. “These actions are unacceptable violations of the right to equal protection under the law, and we urge the court to put a stop to it immediately.”
According to the complaint, Kleinschmit worked at UIC as a clinical associate professor in Department of Public Policy Management and Analytics at UIC's College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs.
According to the complaint, he worked at UIC from 2017 until his termination in 2023.
According to the complaint, Kleinschmit excelled over his six years as UIC faculty and "as a scholar in his field." The complaint notes that Kleinschmit "served as the president of a successful regional conference he founded," served on the national council of the American Society for Public Administration, and won "a national award for his work in developing the nascent field of public data science."
According to the complaint, Kleinschmit helped UIC develop and win approval for its Master of Science in Civic Analytics program, becoming its first director in 2020.
According to the complaint, Kleinschmit's "work became the basis for similar programs and degree concentrations across the nation."
However, according to the complaint, Kleinschmit first took note of allegedly discriminatory hiring practices at UIC, particularly in its use of faculty recruiting and development programs the university explicitly stated were intended to increase non-white faculty hiring and to accelerate non-white faculty members along the tenure track.
Specifically, Kleinschmit claims to have witnessed faculty hiring decision makers openly worry the college might "hire another white guy" and to explicitly set so-called "diversity, equity and inclusion" (DEI) goals for faculty recruitment and promotion.
In the complaint, Kleinschmit said he became "immediately uncomfortable" with such recruitment, hiring and promotion policies and quickly "came to realize that the university program was illegal" as it used race as "a primary or even exclusive factor in hiring decisions."
According to the complaint, amid the racial and societal unrest from 2020-2023, centered on the Black Lives Matter movement and other "anti-racism" initiatives, Kleinschmit grew increasingly concerned about growing anti-white, antisemitic and anti-male sentiments being expressed by faculty and administrators alike on the campus of UIC.
According to the complaint, for instance, Kleinschmit met with a chilly reception when he asked a new UIC Dean to take action to clean university buildings, elevators and stairwells, "which had become heavily defaced with graffiti and activist political slogans."
According to the complaint, Kleinschmit was also essentially met with silence and a "knowing glance" from administrators when he questioned why the university was more interested in "making students 'comfortable'" rather than engage in "intellectual discourse in public affairs."
According to the complaint, Kleinschmit also raised concerns over statements from UIC leadership that the university's goal was to make his college "the most diverse it can be" and center the college and its mission on "social justice" and related activism.
Ultimately, Kleinschmit said he gradually became aware that he was going to be "let go."
He was ultimately terminated in August 2023 spring semester, ostensibly as a result of the need for "budget cuts."
Kleinschmit said the decision to fire him at that time appeared to be intentional, to not only cut him loose from his job at UIC, but also deny him the opportunity to seek employment at another university for more than a year.
However, Kleinschmit said he - the department's only white male faculty member - was the only faculty member terminated at that time, despite claims of lack of finances, even as UIC moved forward with plans to hire more "diverse" faculty.
The complaint noted that Kleinschmit's old job was later posted as eligible for hiring. But now the job ad was written in a way to encourage non-white male applicants, "as UIC shifted resources to a new job focused on fulfilling its racially discriminatory goals."
According to the complaint, employment statistics at UIC back Kleinschmit's conclusions.
Pointing to UIC's own data, Kleinschmit noted that from 2019-2023 black tenure track faculty at UIC increased by 25% and Latino faculty increased by 20%, while white faculty declined by 4.24%.
And for non-tenure track faculty, black faculty increased again by 25%; Latino faculty increased by 37%; and white faculty decreased by 7%.
Kleinschmit's lawsuit seeks a court order blocking UIC from continuing its allegedly discriminatory hiring practices. The lawsuit further asks the court to order UIC to pay Kleinschmit for lost earnings and benefits, plus potential punitive damages.
“I was fired for speaking out against illegal behavior by the university," Kleinschmit said in a statement accompanying the filing of his lawsuit. "I’m grateful to the Liberty Justice Center for taking a stand against institutional corruption and fighting for my constitutional and statutory rights."
UIC has not yet responded to the lawsuit in court.