University of Colorado Boulder finalizes $200,000 settlement over microwave comment about palak paneer

The University of Colorado, Boulder, finalized an agreement this month to pay doctoral students Aditya Prakash and Urmi Bhattacheryya a total of $200,000 to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit they filed after an administrative assistant commented on the smell of Mr. Prakash’s palak paneer while he was heating it in an anthropology department microwave.

The complaint began when the assistant told Mr. Prakash, "Oof, that’s pungent," and said there was a rule against microwaving strong-smelling food, Mr. Prakash recalled. After he said he did not appreciate the remark and she began shouting at him, he and four other students heated Indian food in the same microwave two days later.

They said in the lawsuit that a "pattern of escalating retaliation" followed and ultimately led to the revocation of their doctoral funding. The couple filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Denver in September, and as part of the settlement they received their master’s degrees, Ms.

Bhattacheryya said. The pair, who are engaged, have been living in India since October, the article said. The university denied liability and said federal privacy laws prevented it from addressing specifics, adding that it had followed established processes and that the anthropology department had "worked to rebuild trust among students, faculty and staff." Other commentators in the article said complaints about food smells have long been used to mark certain groups as inferior; Mr.

Key Topics

Culture, Boulder, Aditya Prakash, Urmi Bhattacheryya, Palak Paneer, Civil Rights Lawsuit