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Sacramento State President Luke Wood and the CSU board of trustees face a workplace discrimination lawsuit filed by the school\u2019s former DEI leader Mia Settles-Tidwell.<\/p>\n
Scott Lorenzo<\/p>\n
Special to The Bee<\/p>\n
For Mia Settles-Tidwell, suffering in silence was not an option, she said.<\/p>\n
A year ago, the former chief diversity officer at Sacramento State sued President Luke Wood and the California State University\u2019s board of trustees over discrimination based on age, gender and race that she said she faced at the workplace. After The Sacramento Bee reported on the lawsuit last week<\/a>, Settles-Tidwell issued a statement June 19 detailing her experience at the university before she resigned in April 2024. The university, meanwhile, has called the allegations \u201cbaseless\u201d and \u201cdevoid of merit.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was shocked and bewildered by President Luke Wood\u2019s discriminatory and retaliatory actions toward me,\u201d Settles-Tidwell said. \u201cI revered him as a racial equity expert and looked forward to working with him. I soon learned that the public racial justice persona was incongruent with the private equity malpractice he committed against me.\u201d<\/p>\n Since he took over in 2023, Wood has made diversity initiatives the cornerstone of his presidency. Previously the chief diversity officer and the first Black Distinguished Professor at San Diego State, he championed the Black Honors College and the Wileety Native American College at Sacramento State. These initiatives were designed to provide students with culturally grounded educational experiences that highlight the history and contributions of Black and Native American communities. Under his leadership, Sacramento State became the first Black-Serving Institution in California and increased its Black student enrollment by 23%. In Wood\u2019s cabinet of 12 campus leaders, 50% are women.<\/p>\n But Settles-Tidwell said this commitment to equity did not translate into Wood\u2019s working relationship with her. In the complaint filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, the Black woman leader said she was humiliated in front of her colleagues, offered a lower pay raise than her peers, excluded from teams and documents she should have had access to, and slowly stripped of her full responsibilities. When Settles-Tidwell raised concerns, the situation worsened, according to her lawsuit.<\/p>\n \u201cIntra-racial discrimination is real and prevalent,\u201d she said in her statement earlier this month. \u201cIt is most difficult to call out someone of your same race, ethnicity, gender in these situations. Discriminatory and retaliatory practices are gender-neutral and race-independent. So suffering in silence could not be my answer. Just look at what happened to Antoinette Candia-Bailey at Lincoln University. She received no justice.\u201d<\/p>\n Candia-Bailey, a Black woman who served as vice president at Missouri\u2019s Lincoln University, died by suicide in January 2024 days after receiving a termination letter. News outlets reported that she had previously accused the school\u2019s president<\/a>, John Moseley, of bullying, harassment and discrimination. By March that year, Moseley was reinstated to his position after a third-party investigation did not find evidence that substantiated the bullying claims. Advocacy groups<\/a> have continued to demand accountability in the case and call for larger institutional reform.<\/p>\n In her lawsuit, Settles-Tidwell said she had no choice but to resign from her post in 2024 as a result of the discrimination she experienced. She said there was an attempt to move the Office for Equal Opportunity out of her portfolio and that she was initially excluded from the Black Honors College leadership team despite having written the original proposal for it. Settles-Tidwell was \u201crestricted\u201d from hiring for her division, her lawsuit says, and directing its programming. Compared with her peers\u2019 minimum 2.5% merit pay raise in 2024, she only received a 1.5% increase, the complaint says. And she was berated in front of her peers by Wood, according to her lawsuit, with no future opportunity to discuss the issues he raised.<\/p>\n In her statement this month, she drew special attention to a CSU-wide Juneteenth Symposium in June 2024. Settles-Tidwell said she spent two years planning it, but was not adequately credited for it. The CSU system holds a biennial Juneteenth Symposium to bring all its campuses together to honor Black history and reflect on the ongoing pursuit of justice. It is hosted by a different campus each time and Sacramento State took charge for the second-ever event in 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cNever once was my named mentioned or credited with this work at the event I planned,\u201d Settles-Tidwell said. \u201cPresident Wood received the credit and he has been receiving his raises 6% this year. The irony of exploiting Black labor on Juneteenth.\u201d<\/p>\n When Settles-Tidwell resigned in April 2024, Wood issued a statement in which he thanked her for her service to the university and called her a \u201cstrategic thinker who is strongly committed to student success and equity in education.\u201d In highlighting her achievements, he noted that she had been \u201cinstrumental\u201d in planning the then-upcoming Juneteenth Symposium, apart from implementing an antiracism plan, strengthening the school\u2019s response to sexual harassment cases and creating taskforces to address antisemitism and Islamophobia.<\/p>\n However, a review of the YouTube livestream of the event<\/a> showed no mention of Settles-Tidwell during opening remarks or the vote of thanks at the end of the two-day event.<\/p>\n In her statement last week, Settles-Tidwell called for an end to \u201csystemic and institutional sanctioned violence, gaslighting, exploitation and hostile environments in the workplace against Black women.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, to compensate her for her alleged loss of income and the emotional and physical stress she said she endured, Settles-Tidwell is seeking damages of an undefined amount through her lawsuit. And Sacramento State, which has denied all allegations, is getting ready to prove its side of the story in court. The parties will meet in court for the next hearing in the case Sept. 8.<\/p>\n What\u2019s in the lawsuit?<\/p>\n Settles-Tidwell\u2019s allegations:<\/p>\n Discrimination and harassment based on race, gender and ageRetaliation for complaining about discrimination and harassmentWrongful termination<\/p>\n Sacramento State\u2019s response: \u201cCSU believes the claims asserted by Plaintiff Settles-Tidwell are entirely baseless and devoid of merit, and CSU is prepared to vigorously defend against these claims,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n What happens next: The Los Angeles County Superior Court will hear a motion filed by the CSU board and President Wood to transfer the case to the Sacramento County Superior Court on Sept. 8.<\/p>\n Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n
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