A biologist is suing Cornell University over allegations that the school engaged in illegal race-based hiring and intentionally excluding white candidates from consideration, according to news coverage. The complaint, which was filed Monday in a federal district court in New York, alleges that Cornell violated federal law during a faculty hiring process in 2020, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday. (RELATED: Harvard Professor Calls Out University’s ‘Exclusion Of White Males’ In Scathing Public Resignation)The plaintiff, Colin Wright, was serving as a postdoctoral researcher at Pennsylvania State University at the time, the Washington Post reported. “Cornell used a so-called ‘Diversity Axis’ to sort applicants by race, the job posting was kept hidden, and no white candidate ever had a shot—which is illegal. In November 2025, Cornell reached an agreement with the Trump administration in order to regain the $1 billion in federal funding the administration had stripped from the school months earlier.