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De Piero v. Penn State University

From June 2023 to March 2025
Pennsylvania State University at Abington (Public college or university)
1600 Woodland Rd, Abington, PA 19001, United States

Identity of Speakers

  • ZACK K. DEPIERO
    Faculty/Staff
    Other

    De Piero was a non-tenure-track assistant teaching professor of English and composition at Penn State at Abington.

  • LILIANA NAYDAN
    Faculty/Staff
    Other

    Naydan is the department chair of English at Penn State at Abington.

Resources

Additional Information

  • Incident Nature:
    Course Content
    Other course-related event
    Lawsuit
  • Incident Political Orientation:
    Not Clear
  • Incident Responses:
    Litigation
  • Incident Status:
    Dismissed
  • Did not involve Speech Codes

Summary

In June of 2023, Zack K. De Piero, a former English professor at Pennsylvania State University at Abington, filed suit against Penn State, alleging discrimination against white people. In the lawsuit, he alleged that the training he received as an English professor was problematic: he alleged that he was forced to not apply consistent standards to students of different racial groups and was forced to penalize students of East Asia and Indian origins to equalize outcomes between differences races. He particularly mentioned Liliana Naydan, department chair of English at Penn State at Abington, for her alleged hostility against him.

In March of 2025, a federal district judge dismissed the suit, holding that the alleged conduct was not severe enough to establish a discrimination claim under state and federal laws. De Piero currently intends to appeal to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.