By Ellen Rugeley
Marilynn Stacey-Suggs, former athletics director of Savannah State University (SSU), has filed a lawsuit alleging that the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, which operates SSU, discriminated against her based on her gender and retaliated against her for opposing unlawful discrimination. Dr. Cheryl Davenport Dozier, university president, was also named as a defendant in the suit.
As a long-time employee of SSU, Stacey-Suggs served as interim athletics director, senior woman administrator (SWA) and even became the university’s first female athletics director in January of 2010. While serving as SWA, she spearheaded the school’s transition into the Division I level of the NCAA. Also, during her tenure as athletics director, the Mid-Eastern Athletics Conference extended provisional membership to SSU as its 13th member institution. In addition, she is also credited with helping to reduce the budget deficit she inherited by increasing donations while operating her department under budget.
In May of 2011, the Board of Regents appointed Dr. Dozier as the new interim president of SSU after deciding not to renew the contract of the university’s previous president. Subsequently, one of Dr. Dozier’s first official actions was to hire Damon Evans as a consultant to the university’s athletics program. Prior to coming to SSU, Evans was forced to resign as the University of Georgia’s athletic director in July of 2010 following his public arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol while in the company of a 28-year-old woman with whom he was romantically involved, even though he was married to someone else at the time. According to the suit, after Evans allegedly began “running the athletics program from behind the scenes,” Dr. Dozier fired Stacey-Suggs and replaced her with Sterling Steward Jr., despite the fact that he had fewer qualifications and less experience than Stacey-Suggs.
According to Stacey-Suggs, the decision to terminate her as AD was “motivated in substantial part by her gender,” and noted in the suit that “a less qualified male candidate who was paid a higher salary to do the same job” replaced her.
The suit also claims that SSU has a pattern and practice and gender-based discrimination permeating throughout the university, alleging that numerous female faculty and staff have been forced out or left and been replaced by males.
After being removed as athletics director in July of 2011, SSU re-hired Stacey-Suggs as the associate director of student development, a “less prestigious, lower-paying position which carried with if far fewer responsibilities.” In addition, the suit contends that, after filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on December 28, 2011, the defendants retaliated on June 18, 2012 when she was told for the first time that her new post was “interim” only and that SSU intended to initiate a search to fill the role on a permanent basis.
Stacey-Suggs, who is represented by attorneys A. Lee Parks Jr., Regan Keebaugh and Jennifer K. Coalson of the Atlanta law firm Parks, Chesin and Walbert, P.C., has asserted claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and the Equal Pay Act.
The suit asks that Stacey-Suggs be reinstated or be allowed to continue as associate director of student development on a non-interim basis but with the same salary, benefits and seniority as athletic director. She is also seeking damages by a jury and attorney fees.
SSU spokeswoman Loretta Heyaward quoted Savannah State legal counsel as saying Dozier had not seen the complaint and could not comment. Board of Regents spokesman John Millsaps said the board does not comment on pending litigation.
