Trial set in dispute over firing at U-M health system

ANN ARBOR (AP) — A judge has declined to dismiss a lawsuit that accuses the University of Michigan of illegally firing an administrator who said black patients and visitors were victims of racial profiling at campus hospitals.

Attorney James Fett says Judge Timothy Connors set a Dec. 5 trial date after hearing arguments last Thursday.

Fett’s client, Dr. Carmen Green, was ousted as head of the Office for Health Equity and Inclusion in 2015.

In a court filing, the university says she bullied co-workers and had “leadership deficiencies.”

But Green, who is black, says she was removed because of unflattering news.

She reported that security was being called more often to deal with blacks, who were grieving or emotional, than whites. She considered it discrimination.

Green still is a tenured professor at the University of Michigan.