UTRGV’s Former Athletic Trainer’s Racial Discrimination Claim Against the University Survives Plea of Jurisdiction

By Professor Robert J. Romano, JD, LLM, St. John’s University, Senior Writer Alfredo Castillo, a Hispanic male, was hired by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (“UTRGV”) as the school’s Head Athletic Trainer in December 2017. Mr. Castillo contends that he served in that capacity without incident or controversy up until the time the University decided to hire Chasse Conque, a non-Hispanic white male, as its Athletic Director in August 2019. Mr. Castillo claims that initially Con