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MSU Northern Pays $50K To Settle Racial Discrimination Complaint

Montana State University - Northern
Montana State University - Northern

Montana State University-Northern awarded a professor $50,000 to settle a racial discrimination complaint she filed against the school. The University did not admit guilt, but nonetheless agreed to pay the professor.

Adjunct professor Yvonne Tiger, who’s Native American, filed the complaint in July 2016.

Montana State University - Northern
Montana State University - Northern

The specific allegations were never released, but it involves an MSU-Northern position grant-funded by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Tiger was released from her grant-funded job as healthcare transformation specialist in June 2016.

University spokesman Kevin McRae told the Billings Gazette that Tiger will no longer work as a healthcare transformation specialist but she will remain on staff as a part-time adjunct professor.

University Relations Director Jim Potter did not return calls Tuesday.

The Montana Human Rights Bureau has dropped the case as part of the settlement.

Copyright 2020 Montana Public Radio. To see more, visit Montana Public Radio.

Brie Ripley
Brie Ripley got her start at KUOW Public Radio in Seattle as a work-study student in 2013. She graduated with her degree in Journalism and Anthropology from the University of Washington and began freelancing. Her work has appeared on KNKX Seattle’s “Sound Effect;” KUOW Public Radio’s “The Record,” “Speakers Forum,” and “Local Wonder;” and in the multi-station project, “American Homefront.” Ripley produces the grant-funded radio documentary series “Tie My Tubes” and derives her passion for radio reporting from listening to "This American Life" and reading the works of Tom Robbins while growing up. She moved to Billings in the summer of 2016.