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A white, male former professor at the University of South Florida is suing the Board of Trustees, arguing he was forced to resign last May after facing persistent discrimination, Florida Politics reported.
Andrew Bugajski, a Ph.D. in nursing, is seeking more than $100,000 in damages for lost wages, damage to his reputation and mental anguish at the hands of Usha Menon, who serves as dean and senior associate vice president for USF Health, and who is a woman born in India.
Shortly after they started working together in 2018, Bugajski noticed Menon, his supervisor, “exhibiting hostility towards Caucasian men,” wrote Bugajski’s lawyer, Christiane Nolton. “Specifically, Vice Dean Menon told Plaintiff and others that USF’s upper administrators were ‘a bunch of fucking white male conservatives.’”
The suit says that Bugajski received positive employee evaluations and that Menon frequently praised his “noteworthy achievements.” Yet she “openly held a deeply rooted disdain for Caucasian men,” he said, making remarks such as “you’re a man, you don’t understand,” and “no offense, you’re a White man and you don’t get to weigh in on this.”
According to the lawsuit, Bugajski also accused Menon of planning to push out another white male employee, whom she referred to as “creepy,” “stupid” and “incompetent.”
USF did not respond to Florida Politics’ request for comment.
