White woman sues University of Wisconsin, says she was forced out of diversity position due to her race

A woman claims she was forced to resign from her position as head of the diversity office at the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire because she is white.

Rochelle Hoffman, 36, has filed a civil lawsuit against the university on racial discrimination claims. She is seeking compensation for loss of wages as well as "psychological injury, emotional distress, loss of reputation, career damage, and attorney fees and costs."

The Daily Mail reports that Hoffman was recently promoted as the interim director of the university's Multicultural Student Services office before she was forced to resign because of her race.

Minority students and faculty reportedly complained about Hoffman's appointment to the role because she is white, and expressed concerns to former Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and Student Affairs, Olga Diaz.

The lawsuit states that "It was exclusively Hoffman's identity as white that was the issue; criticism was about her race and color, not her qualifications."

Hoffman claims that she exceeded her role's expectations before feeling compelled to resign.

Students and faculty said, according to the suit, that they were concerned about Hoffman's appointment because they "didn't want white people overseeing spaces intended to serve students of color." 

"Do you personally feel white staff can do as effective a job as a person of color, within a space for people of color?" one student said during an open forum, the lawsuit states.

Another student said, according to the lawsuit, "We don't want white people in the MSS office...Our heritage months are not for the campus, they are for us only."

The suit claims that "students wanted Diaz to promise she would hire people of color to work in MSS. There was an absolute sense that any position formerly held by a person of color needed to be filled by a person of color, preferably a person with the same profile to maintain the affinity-based mode."

"The affinity model that had been in use at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire was premised on the idea that for a student to be well served, they needed to be assigned a coordinator of the same ethnic background and that a white person could not adequately support a student of color," according to the lawsuit.

According to the court filing, in her position Hoffman "created and managed programming for students of color and for low income and first-generation college students" and "taught classes and created new classes to improve retention, grade point averages and graduation rates for these groups."

Before assuming her role, which lasted for only eight months, Hoffman worked for the University's Blugold Beginnings office, which served "underrepresented, low-income and first-generation college students," according to the Daily Mail.

The University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire released a statement to the outlet and said: "As is the case with all pending litigation, UW-Eau Claire will not offer a statement or comment on the lawsuit. UW-Eau Claire does not discriminate based on race in any employment decisions."

The civil lawsuit names the university's Board of Regents, UW-Eau Claire Chancellor Jim Schmidt, and Assistant Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Teresa O’Halloran as defendants.