UNR professors file lawsuit alleging gender, race discrimination

Three psychology professors at the University of Nevada, Reno have accused the university of facilitating a hostile workplace where professors and students are discriminated against based on their race and gender.

When they spoke out, professors and students allege they were retaliated against.

William O’Donohue, Jane Fisher and Lorraine Benuto filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the Nevada System of Higher Education over what they say has been discriminatory treatment at UNR.

The lengthy complaint details what the plaintiffs allege are years of race- and gender-based discrimination from a variety of faculty members at the university, and accuses the university of having been aware and either failing to act or retaliating against those who speak out through investigations.

Benuto has worked at UNR for 16 years and obtained tenure in 2021. O’Donohue and Fisher, who are married, have worked at UNR since 1996 and have been tenured for over two decades, according to the complaint.

Fisher experienced “sexual hostility” by a number of male UNR employees over many years, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit accuses Michael Crognale, the chair of the psychology department, of “discriminatory, disparate treatment” toward Benuto ever since she became a professor in 2016. It describes “displays of open anger” from Crognale, including physically intimidating her by standing over her and yelling, as well as saying, “I’m seething with anger,” and “you’re p—-ing me off.”

It also said he accused Benuto of contributing to “white flight,” saying that she was responsible for five faculty members leaving.

Benuto filed two Title IX complaints without getting adequate responses, according to the lawsuit.

In what plaintiffs call retaliatory investigations, Benuto was asked about the birth method of her recent child, a question she refused to answer.

The lawsuit also details allegations of discrimination against other people, such as an allegation that Crognale said two women were “tenure mistakes,” which Fisher interpreted to be based on gender.

Crognale, who is not a defendant in the lawsuit, denied the allegations.

“All accusations of discriminatory or other objectionable behavior made therein about me and others are without merit and inaccurate. I believe that the sole purpose of this lawsuit was to bring disrepute to the University and myself,” he wrote in an email to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

UNR said that it does not comment on pending litigation. The Nevada System of Higher Education did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

The lawsuit also details discrimination against students, including a professor who, the complaint says, told minority students that their research, which was directed at assisting persons of color who had been traumatized and/or had other psychological difficulties, was unimportant and unneeded.

External review

In a 2023 external review of the psychology department obtained by the Review-Journal, the auditors wrote: “the climate and culture — specifically the conflict between faculty and mistrust between faculty and students — as well as a lack of clear expectations (e.g., outdated handbook) has complicated the process of advising within the Clinical Psychology program.”

It called leadership within the department “a significant problem” over the last several years.

The report said that graduate students have become “weaponized” in the conflicts between faculty. The reviewers also said students described called a faculty member, unnamed in the report, as “abusive” and “intimidating.”

Faculty members also told reviewers that the program has had difficulty adjusting to a more diverse student body and that diverse students do not feel validated, supported or safe.

Students also described a faculty member having students engage in “thought exercises” in a class that included transphobic and sexist ideas or concepts, according to the review.

In response to the review, Crognale wrote that hostility in the department had spanned 25 to 30 years.

Program at risk

The retaliation has also put a trauma treatment program at risk.

O’Donohue and Benuto also oversee and manage a free counseling and therapy service to Nevada residents who have suffered trauma and/or psychological harm related to sexual abuse, which the attorney representing them, Mark Mausert, described as a “godsend.”

The lawsuit said that the program had been denigrated throughout the years.

Mausert, meanwhile, told the Review-Journal that in his years as an attorney sending people to the program, he has never heard one bad word from those he referred to the program.

Mausert has handled some 1,000 sexual harassment cases and sends many of his clients to the program. He said the program changed many of their lives.

Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ktfutts on X and @katiefutterman.bsky.social.