Trial in race lawsuit set to begin Monday

Opening arguments in a discrimination lawsuit brought against the University by a former graduate student will begin Monday in federal district court. In March of 1999, Cleaven Johnson, a former School of Social Work student, filed a $10.6 million lawsuit against Penn, alleging racial discrimination and grade tampering. Jury members for the case were selected yesterday. Johnson is accusing the University of encouraging the harassment and isolation of African Americans by condoning racial intolerance and animosity toward African-American students. "We're going to call witnesses to talk about the climate at the University of Pennsylvania," said Johnson's lawyer, Rosalind Plummer. "We consider it a hostile racial environment." Plummer added that, in addition to race discrimination, she would be presenting evidence of "hostile retaliation" by school officials to Johnson's complaints and "breach of policy and contract by Penn." The University has denied all the allegations made in the lawsuit. "Any suggestion that the University discriminated against Cleaven Johnson is outrageous," Penn spokeswoman Phyllis Holtzman said. "We consider the charges to be completely without merit and we will defend against the lawsuit vigorously." The nine other defendants named in the suit -- including Social Work Dean Ira Schwartz -- and Johnson could not be reached for comment yesterday. Johnson, a graduate of Yale University's Divinity School, came to Penn in 1997 to pursue a master's degree in Social Work. He claims that his graduation was delayed because of the racially motivated actions of two of his instructors. At the time the lawsuit was filed, Johnson said that one instructor "routinely refused to accept [his] papers." Additionally, he claimed that several instructors made unfair demands of him that were not asked of white students. Johnson also said that he was the victim of grade tampering, stating that one of the instructors forced him to completely rewrite his final paper two weeks after submission at the end of the 1997 fall semester. He was given an incomplete until he resubmitted the assignment. However, Johnson alleged that the instructor eventually failed him because he continued to file complaints with officials of the school concerning her allegedly racist actions throughout the semester. These allegations were reviewed by Social Work administrators but were found to have no merit and were, thus, dismissed. Johnson also said that he had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his alleged mistreatment. The trial was originally set to begin this past Monday. There was a delay when the original district judge, William Yohn, had a time conflict with a criminal case he was trying and had to assign the case to magistrate judge Charles Smith.