EDITORS' CORNER
Key Takeaways
- A former white DEI staffer at UW-Eau Claire settled a discrimination lawsuit against the university for $265,000, with the settlement stating no admission of liability or wrongdoing by either party.
- In her lawsuit, the employee had highlighted negative comments from students about her presence as a white staff member in a multicultural space.
University of Wisconsin leaders recently resolved a lawsuit brought on by a white diversity, equity and inclusion staffer who alleged she was discriminated against because of her race.
Rochelle Hoffman, former assistant director of the Multicultural Student Services at the UW-Eau Claire, and the UW Board of Regents ended the dispute by settling the complaint, Wisconsin Public Radio reported.
“Under the terms of agreement, both Hoffman and regents stipulate that the $265,000 payment ‘is not to be construed as an admission of liability’ or wrongdoing and is intended only to ‘avoid litigation and buy their peace,'” WPR reported earlier this month.
Hoffman said in a statement: “Despite facing unlawful discrimination in that DEI role as a white woman, I remain steadfast in my belief that high-quality, accessible education — grounded in data and responsive to a changing workforce — is essential for all learners.”
Hoffman is now listed as an employee at Western Technical College, and spokespersons for UW-Eau Claire and the UW Board of Regents declined to comment to WPR.
Hoffman had claimed the public university became a “hostile environment” and there are “blatant actions of racial discrimination against white folks” like herself, The College Fix previously reported in January 2024 shortly after she filed her lawsuit.
“On a regular basis there are great educators that are told they shouldn’t occupy multicultural space, to check their white privilege, passed over for jobs for an outside candidate of color, and reminded they are ‘inherently racist’ because they are white,” Hoffman had alleged.
According to the original complaint, during an Open House forum in February 2022, several students made negative comments about Hoffman’s race, including, “Do you personally feel white staff can do as effective a job as a person of color, within a space for people of color?” and “We don’t want white people in the MSS office.”
Students argued that “for a student to be well served, they needed to be assigned a coordinator of the same ethnic background,” the lawsuit stated.
