UPDATED: Framingham School Committee Member Files Discrimination Suit Against Employer

Two Wheelock College professors, including Framingham School Committee member Eric Silverman, filed a discrimination complaint against the College and its President with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, according to a report in the Boston Globe today, Feb. 15.

Silverman and Gail Dines, who both practice Judaism, in their complaints filed with the federal government said they were subjected to anti-Semitic discrimination, and a difficult workplace environment.

Silverman is a cultural anthropologist and a tenured Associate Professor of American Studies and Human Development at Wheelock, with areas of expertise in American Jews and Judaism & Men and Masculinity. He has taught at Wheelock since 2006.

Dines is a tenured Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies and Chair of American Studies at Wheelock.

The two are seeking unspecified damages. Silverman’s complaint was 40 pages, Dines 31-pages.

In their complaint, the professors said the University, including President Jackie Jenkins-Scott, made their work environment difficult after the professors wrote a letter in 2014, citing a lack of Jewish views on the Boston campus.

The College maintains the complaint is “without merit.”

“Wheelock College is committed to providing a diverse workplace, free from discrimination and retaliation. Although Wheelock does not comment on the particulars of personnel disputes or litigation, it disagrees strongly with the allegations made in the actions recently filed against the College. The College is prepared to defend the institution against these claims, which it believes are without merit,” said spokesperson Marta Rosa in an email to Framingham Patch this morning.

President Jenkins-Scott is leaving the College and a search has begun to find her replacement.

Silverman was first elected to the Framingham School Committee in 2013. He is running for re-election for his second term. The election is March 29. He is one of three candidates for two seats.

Read the complete Boston Globe report here.

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Photo of Eric Silverman, Patch file photo 2012.

Originally published at 8:30 a.m. Updated with statement from Wheelock at 9:25 a.m.