On Mar. 9, 2019, Benjamin Gerig, a former DU spokesperson, was given permission by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to file a lawsuit against the university for disability discrimination.

According to their website, the EEOC is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person’s race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetic information. The EEOC has headquarters offices in Washington, D.C. and 53 field offices serving every part of the nation.

A recent Denver Post article says that Gerig worked at DU for five years and received great work reviews until he was asked to move to a windowless office in April of 2017. After moving into his new office, his mood and work performance started to deteriorate, and he was fired for his poor work performance shortly after. Greig claims that he should not be blamed for his decrease in productivity because he has Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a condition caused by a lack of sunlight, a feeling of isolation in times of cold weather and alterations in the brain’s concentration of serotonin and melatonin. Gerig claims that DU did not give him necessary accommodations, such as schedule changes and access to windows when he asked for them in August of 2017. Therefore, he claims that he should not have been fired from the university.

Results of the lawsuit will be given after the U.S. District Court in Denver makes its final decision in July.