Rachel Tudor was hired at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant before she began transition. That link goes to an article published in 2011.
The story now has an update.
When she began transition four years ago, Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs Douglas N. McMillan is reported to have said that Tudor's "lifestyle" offended his Baptist beliefs and asked whether Tudor could just be summarily dismissed.
He was told that action would constitute gender discrimination under Title IX by the Department of Education.
Tudor was informed that being transgender was a "gave offense" to McMillan's religious sensibilities.
Things got worse for McMillan when the faculty senate voted to add gender identity to the school's nondiscrimination policy. That vote was of course not binding because it was not acknowledged by the Board of Trustees.
Lat year Tudor's colleagues recommended her for tenure. The administration responded by seeking legal opinion about whether they were required to honor the recommendation of a faculty committee.
Tudor was denied tenure by the administration.
The dean refused to discuss it with me and the vice president refused to meet with me.
--Tudor
But the president was required to reveal his reasons. School policy states that the president must honor faculty recommendations unless there is a “compelling reason” or “exceptional circumstances.”
One reason [he gave was that] he was unable to verify I was editor of two journals. I co-edited it with a senior colleague.
The journals are in our library. My name is on the cover.
--Tudor
Tudor said her co-editor told her no one ever contacted him.
The school's president also dismissed her service for a Native American symposium held annually on campus.
That’s our main academic conference. I served on the committee several years. I gave presentations at the conference. He said my service was neither noteworthy nor exceptional.
--Tudor
Tudor said that another reason the school’s president gave for denying her tenure was that the tenure and promotion committee didn’t justify their reasons for the recommendation. However, she said committee members told her that they were required to make an up-or-down vote only and were not allowed to back up their recommendation.
After being denied tenure faculty members are often allowed to reapply during their seventh and final year of their contract. She was set to do so when McMillan issued a memo announcing that he would not allow her to reapply this year and that she would be terminated at the end of spring semester.
He said it would be a waste of the faculty’s time — although they were on board. And it would enflame tensions between faculty and administration.
--Tudor
She filed a grievance and the faculty committee voted unanimously to recommend her for tenure.
“Someone who works in the business office who was designated by the president to take the recommendation to the president,” she said decided he was opposed to her tenure and decided not to take the recommendation to the president.The president said she could not reapply because of policy and precedent...at the same time that a male colleague was in the process of reapplying for tenure after having received help to improve his application.
The administration began claiming that her scholarship was flawed.
In the past two years, I’ve have 10 peer-reviewed publications. This is a teaching university. The department chair doesn’t have 10.
--Tudor
Tudor was given the Faculty Senate Recognition Award for Excellence in Scholarship for the 2010-2011 academic year and was fired in May 2011 for failing to obtain tenure.
Now the DOJ has decided to sue SOSU for discrimination against Dr. Tudor.
Both the Southeastern Oklahoma State University and the Regional University System of Oklahoma (RUSO) are being sued by the DOJ for violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the department announced in a statement Monday
Southeastern Oklahoma State University is committed to diversity and equal employment opportunities. The University is confident in its legal position and its adherence to all applicable employment laws; however, due to the litigation, Southeastern has been advised by the Attorney General’s Office not to discuss any specifics concerning this matter.
We will allow the legal system to run its course, while we direct our focus and energy on our top priority, that of educating our students.
--SOSU President Sean Burrage, who was not serving in that position at the time of the incident
The lawsuit alleges that a human resources staffer, who was not named, called Tudor and warned her that the school’s vice president for academic affairs, Douglas McMillan, had asked whether Tudor could be fired because the “transgender lifestyle” offended his religious beliefs.
Jane McMillan, director of the university’s counseling center and Douglas McMillan’s sister, told Tudor to be careful because some people were openly hostile to transgender people, and that Douglas McMillan considered them a “grave offense to his [religious] sensibilities,” the lawsuit says.
Tudor’s application for tenure was denied by a dean and McMillan without any reason given, the lawsuit claims, unlike an application by a male faculty member in the English department at the same time who was given guidance on how to improve his ultimately successful application.
--Washington Post
By standing beside Dr. Tudor, the Department of Justice sends a clear message that we are committed to eliminating discrimination on the basis of sex and gender identity. … And we will continue to work tirelessly, using every legal tool available, to ensure that transgender individuals are guaranteed the rights and protections that all Americans deserve.
We will not allow unfair biases and unjust prejudices to prevent transgender Americans from reaching their full potential as workers and as citizens. And we will continue to work tirelessly, using every legal tool available, to ensure that transgender individuals are guaranteed the rights and protections that all Americans deserve.
--Attorney General Eric Holder
[it was] shocking that the leadership of a state university would, as this suit alleges, engage in such an elaborate scheme to push out a faculty member solely because she is transgender. And it is heartening that the Justice Department is willing to take on a state school school over this.
--Harper Jean Tobin, National Center for Transgender Equality