## Facts

- The University of New Haven (UNH) opened a search in February 1999 for a head football coach after the prior coach left.
- UNH posted the position internally and through the NCAA, listing minimum qualifications including a bachelor’s degree and “successful collegiate coaching experience,” with experience in recruiting, game coaching, and knowledge of NCAA rules described as essential.
- The position involved management of a Division II football program, including coaching, recruiting, compliance with NCAA and university rules, budgeting, scheduling, staffing, academic monitoring, and fundraising.
- UNH received 36 applications; a committee selected six candidates for interviews, all of whom were white and had collegiate coaching experience.
- James C. Jackson, an African-American coach with minor-league professional football coaching experience but no collegiate coaching experience, was not interviewed or hired.
- Jackson asserted (1) intentional race discrimination in UNH’s failure to interview/hire him and (2) that the collegiate-experience requirement disproportionately excluded African-American candidates.

## Issues

1. Whether Jackson established a prima facie disparate-treatment hiring claim, including whether he was “qualified” despite lacking the posting’s minimum requirement of collegiate coaching experience.
2. Whether Jackson produced sufficient statistical evidence to establish a prima facie disparate-impact claim based on UNH’s collegiate-coaching-experience requirement.

## Decision

- The court granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment on all claims under § 1981, Title VI, and Title VII.
- On disparate treatment, the court held Jackson failed to show he was qualified because he lacked an expressly required minimum qualification that UNH consistently applied.
- Alternatively, the court found no triable evidence that UNH’s reliance on the collegiate-experience requirement was a pretext for racial discrimination.
- On disparate impact, the court held Jackson’s statistics were insufficient to show that the collegiate-experience requirement caused a significant disproportionate exclusion of African-American candidates.
- The court further accepted UNH’s business justification that collegiate coaching experience was reasonably related to the demands of NCAA compliance and Division II program management.

## Legal Principles

- Under the McDonnell Douglas framework, an applicant who lacks an employer’s explicitly stated, legitimate, and consistently enforced minimum qualification is generally not “qualified” for purposes of establishing a prima facie disparate-treatment claim.
- Courts ordinarily defer to employer-set job qualifications when they are reasonably related to job duties and not shown to be adopted or enforced in bad faith as a cover for discrimination.
- A disparate-impact claim requires reliable statistical proof linking a specific, facially neutral practice to a measurable disproportionate adverse effect on a protected group; generalized underrepresentation data and small or untethered samples are insufficient.
- Where a plaintiff makes a disparate-impact showing, the employer may defend by demonstrating business necessity; the plaintiff typically must identify a less discriminatory alternative that would serve the employer’s legitimate needs.

## Conclusion

The court entered summary judgment for UNH because Jackson could not satisfy the “qualified” element for disparate treatment given the posted collegiate-coaching-experience requirement, and he failed to support disparate impact with statistically reliable evidence tying that requirement to a disproportionate exclusion of African-American applicants.


Jackson v. Univ. of New Haven, 228 F. Supp. 2d 156 (D. Conn. 2002)