An employee and former presidential prospect for Slippery Rock University has filed a lawsuit against the school and others involved in a case that revolves around alleged discrimination.

Amir Mohammadi, who began working for SRU in 2015 as vice president for finance and administrative affairs and advancement services, filed the suit against the university, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education and Robert Taylor, a member of SRU's council of trustees and its presidential search committee.

Mohammadi filed the complaint Thursday requesting a jury trial, and summons were issued for all three defendants.

The lawsuit alleges that despite Mohammadi being a front-runner candidate, Taylor bullied the committee into not selecting the Iranian-born hopeful as the 17th president of Slippery Rock University, a position that since has been filled by William Behre.

Mohammadi's lawsuit lists seven counts, three of which are against SRU and PASSHE.

“Dr. Mohammadi's candidacies for the SRU and Clarion presidencies were blocked because he opposed the discriminatory actions of Mr. Taylor,” the lawsuit says.

Mohammadi later applied for and was denied the Clarion post. The suit lists four counts against Taylor.

“As a result of Mr. Taylor's actions, Dr. Mohammadi suffered damages in that he was not appointed to the SRU presidency and in that his professional reputation was harmed,” the suit reads.

The lawsuit claims that in addition to bullying the committee to disregard Mohammadi's candidacy, Taylor did not attend either of the two interviews with Mohammadi.

The suit points to a documented letter sent to the PASSHE interim chancellor that was written by Taylor's fellow committee members as evidence of his absence at the first interview. In the letter, the state system was asked to consider removing Taylor from the committee.

Taylor was present, but left just before Mohammadi's interview, according to the letter.

Despite Taylor's objections, Mohammadi continue to be a top candidate, and made it to the final round of consideration, where five candidates would be asked to attend a formal interview at the university, according to the suit.

“Mr. Taylor ultimately bullied the search committee into inviting only four candidates for a formal interview; this was designed to exclude Dr. Mohammadi,” the suit says. “Mr. Taylor refused to appear for the formal interview of Dr. Mohammadi.”

The lawsuit claims this in itself is a clear indication that Mohammadi didn't receive a fair chance.

“Because he did not attend Dr. Mohammadi's interview, Mr. Taylor lacked the necessary information to review Dr. Mohammadi's application for promotion, and as such he should have been barred from participating in the consideration of this application,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit also alleges that Taylor leaked incorrect information to local newspapers — such as the Butler Eagle and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — to explain his lack of support for Mohammadi during the selection process.

The lawsuit says that Taylor's reasoning for the alleged leaks was that there was an unaddressed conflict of interest regarding Mohammadi's candidacy because two members of the committee, Scott Albert and Molly Mercer, were subordinates to Mohammadi.

“PASSHE cleared Mr. Albert and Ms. Mercer for participation on the search committee,” the lawsuit says. “Moreover, both Mr. Albert and Ms. Mercer disclosed their prior relationship with Dr. Mohammadi to the search committee.”

The lawsuit claims that as a result of the bad press and the antagonizing force of Taylor, the vote to advance a Mohammadi as a presidential candidate was tied, which prompted scrapping the original search for a fresh start.

After the first search ended, Mohammadi applied for Clarion University's presidency, but a renewed interest in the incident arose in May 2018, highlighting the failed Slippery Rock University search and portraying Mohammadi in a bad light, according to the lawsuit.

“Due to his merit, Dr. Mohammadi did become a finalist for the Clarion presidency; however, due to negative publicity through the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, on the same day of the final vote, Dr. Mohammadi was rejected,” the suit says.

The lawsuit says that in both instances of media coverage, the leaked inaccurate information by Taylor hindered his chances at employment and also violated a nondisclosure agreement signed by all members of the search committee.

The suit also says the conflicts of interest claims against his candidacy were imposed more harshly than previous presidential candidates in a similar situation.

“Dr. Mohammadi was treated less favorably than earlier internal candidates for the SRU presidency in that he was unfairly and publicly accused of a conflict of interest,” the lawsuit says. “In the past, white internal candidates of U.S. national origin were not subjected to similar accusations of conflict of interest, nor were their candidacies for the SRU presidency blocked.”

The lawsuit says Taylor illustrated evidence of discrimination from the beginning of the proceedings.

“Mr. Taylor, a member of both the PSC and of the COT, vaguely warned other members not to advance Dr. Mohammadi's name, but declined to explain why,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit says there were also echoes of discrimination coming from other members of the trustees.

“Further, the chair of the search, Jeff Smith (who also serves on the council of trustees), also reported that there was evidence of racial animus in the search in that, reportedly, the statement from an SRU trustee to the effect that 'no Persian would ever be selected as president of the university' was received and circulating,” the lawsuit saysd.

The university did not immediately respond to phone calls made Friday afternoon.

Amir Mohammadi did not immediately respond to phone calls made Friday night.

Robert Taylor was unable to be reached for comment.