Court reinstates discrimination claim by Ph.D. applicant with Crohn's disease

In Sjostrand v. Ohio State University, the Sixth Circuit overturned a summary disposition granted by the District Court Judge.  Sjostrand had applied for the Ph.D. program and was rejected even though she had the highest grade point in the applicant pool and met the minimum GRE score. Her score was also higher than at least one admitted candidate.

Sjostrand pointed out that in her interviews, the University representatives spent an inappropriate amount of time discussing her admitted "disability" and the five eventual excuses for not admitting her were never discussed. The appellate court found that she had established a prima facie case and that there was ample evidence to take her claim of disability discrimination to the jury.