Only favors Indian-origin candidates: Chinese-American professor sues university in Texas, accuses Hemang Desai of bias

A Chinese-American assistant professor, Dr Sean Wang, has sued Texas' Southern Methodist University over discrimination and being favorable only to Indians. The lawsuit was filed last year but came to light now after being reported by independent journalist Chris Brunet. In the lawsuit, Wang alleged that the university has a systemic problem with discrimination which resulted in him being denied tenure in 2024 while thre Indian professors were granted the sam in the Accounting department.

According to the lawsuit, the university told Wang that he was not a good fit and that he needed more citations and more visibility. He was called a "bad fit" at least 13 times, the lawsuit said but an Indian colleague Sorabh Thomar received a positive mid-career evaluation from the department chair, who is also an Indian.

Naming chair Dr Hemang Desai, the lawsuit said that Wang was informed on November 19, 2024 by Desai that there was a negative departmental vote (3-1) in which all three Indian faculty members voted against his tenuew citing a failure to acheve outstanding performance, while the sole-non-Indian faculty member voted in favor.



Wang said from the beginning Desai treated him differently and made higher expectations from him than his Indian colleagues.

"Since at least 2006, when Hemang Desai (Indian-origin) became a full professor in SMU’s Cox School of Business, the Accounting Department has had a systematic pattern of discrimination in tenure decisions. Among candidates of Indian descent who meet SMU’s stated productivity standard of at least four top-tier publications, 100% (2 of 2) were tenured: Neil Bhattacharya in 2008 and Gauri Bhat in 2020. Among candidates of non-Indian descent (Caucasian and Chinese) who meet SMU’s stated productivity standard of at least four top-tier publications, SMU has not supported any non-Indian candidates for tenure, including Mina Pizzini, Chris Hogan, Jing Pan, Jeff Yu and

Dr Wang. This pattern is consistent with an ancestry-based preference for Indian-origin candidates and disfavor toward non-Indian candidates," the lawsuit said.

'Indian faculty get prime offices with nice views'

The lawsuit claims that when offices were reassigned in the department's new building in Spring 2024, the Indian faculty were given prime offices with nice views, while East Asian faculty members were assigned to a "Chinese ghetto" down the hall.

The university denied all the allegations in their response filing and said Dr Wang i not entitled to any relief.