Dance professor's lawsuit against Oberlin College reported settled

A lawsuit by a former Oberlin College dance professor who sued the college in 2020 alleging she didn't get a tenured teaching position because she is white and heterosexual recently was reported settled. A trial was set to begin in Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Mark Betleski's courtroom on Feb. 2 in the civil suit brought by Alice Blumenfeld against the college, the dance department chairperson and an administrator. Instead, attorney Michael Schroth informed the court that the case had been settled the final week of January, according to online court records. It wasn't immediately clear what the terms of the settlement were, or if they would be announced publicly. Oberlin College spokesman Scott Wargo said the college didn't have a comment on the matter Monday. A message seeking comment was left for Schroth. Blumenfeld sued the college, dance department Chairwoman Ann Cooper Albright and Rebecca Mosely, the college's director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, for more than $25,000 in compensation and punitive damages in September 2020. Blumenfeld, of Huron, was a visiting professor of dance for two years up until June 2020, when the college eliminated her position and created a new, full-time position that she had to apply for. She claimed Albright told her to start looking for a new job in July 2019 because "We just can't hire another white woman from the Midwest with a husband" and told her the college had to "settle" for a white person for another professorship in the past. A complaint Blumenfeld filed with Mosely, which she said she hoped would remain anonymous and confidential, didn't stay that way, according to the lawsuit. Blumenfeld said after she made the complaint, College of Arts and Sciences Dean David Kamitsuka later asked her about it. Albright was removed as chairwoman of the hiring committee for the job Blumenfeld wanted, but remained on the committee and involved in the process, the lawsuit alleged. Blumenfeld and three other candidates — whom her lawsuit described as "people of color" — were considered for the job and interviewed. Blumenfeld alleged she never was given the chance to meet with students who were helping choose the new professor and also didn't get to meet some other members of the hiring committee. The college later hired a "non-Caucasian, gay man of Filipino descent who does not appear to be from the Midwest or in a heterosexual marriage," according to the lawsuit. In a review of Blumenfeld's complaint, the college found she had not suffered discrimination or retaliation but did find that there had been "a pattern of professionally inappropriate language that violates Oberlin's policy on discrimination," according to the lawsuit. Original reporting by Jason Hawk was included in this story. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @daveobrienCT.