The former nursing school chair at Bethune-Cookman University accused the historical Black university of discrimination and refusing to hire white nursing faculty, according to a new federal lawsuit.
Sameh Ghareeb recently sued the school and raised other allegations about the school’s nursing program after he lost his job last year. The Daytona Beach school did not return a message for comment this week.
Ghareeb, 45, worked up the ranks from an assistant professor in 2016 up to the chair of the nursing school by the time he was forced out last year as he was paid $100,000 annually, his lawsuit said.
His lawsuit quoted his Black boss, the Dean of the College of Nursing and Health Services, making comments to other school officials and staff like, “We’re going to hire faculty in nursing, but they won’t be white because white instructors will not understand Black students.”
In one case, Ghareeb said he recommended the school hire a white instructor with “extensive teaching experience” for a full-time nursing position. But instead BCU opted to choose two Black candidates with either no teaching experience or limited experience, his lawsuit said.
Other times, the Dean nominated Black faculty for faculty awards, ignoring white faculty that Ghareeb nominated, the lawsuit said.
Ghareeb, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally born in Jordan, accused the Dean of retaliating against him by telling Human Resources in July 2017 he wasn’t eligible to work in the United States — a lie, he said — so his contract wasn’t renewed.
Ghareeb “fought the wrongful non-renewal decision and was successfully re-enrolled in January 2018,” his lawsuit said.
By 2023, Ghareeb and the Dean were at odds again — this time when the school accidentally gave the wrong exam to first semester, senior-level nursing students and the two disagreed how to handle the situation.
The students were supposed to take a customized ATI Nursing Medical-Surgical exam over the material they learned that term, Ghareeb’s attorney Jason Imler said.
However, somehow, the students were accidentally given a different ATI exam with several questions that hadn’t been taught to the students before.
Faculty later realized the mistake.
Ghareeb met with faculty who wanted to void the test results and give the students the correct exam instead.
“When the Dean became aware of the situation, she chose to uphold the exam results,” Imler said in an email. “My client believes that decision contributed to some students failing the course, which he viewed as unfair to those students.”
By January 2024, Ghareeb also accused the Dean of shutting him down when he brought up his concerns about BCU’s student retention at the nursing school.
“When Plaintiff attempted to address the concerning retention statistics showing a 44%-78% student loss rate after the first semester and only 20 graduates over three years, Dr. Tucker shouted, ‘No No No No No No … We don’t have such a problem. I will not let you say that about our school’ in front of all the faculty members,” the lawsuit said.
Ghareeb blamed the retention struggles on program policies, including grading thresholds and the use of ATI exams, according to his attorney.
“He reports that an 80% minimum passing grade was required for nursing courses, which is higher than is typical at many institutions,” Imler said in an email. “ ATI proctored exams were used as high-stakes requirements—meaning that even if a student passed all coursework, failure to meet a particular ATI benchmark could result in failing the course.”
Both Ghareeb and the Dean would report each other to Human Resources.
After Ghareeb’s formal complaint was filed April 8, 2024, he was notified that month his contract would not be renewed effective June 30, 2024.
Ghareeb said he suffered anxiety, depression and PTSD with panic attacks after losing his job.
