Chancellor Michael Martin has been named a defendant in a New Mexico lawsuit alleging job discrimination at New Mexico State University while Martin was its president.The case was lodged by five plaintiffs, including Yelena Bird and John Moraros, two tenure-track professors at NMSU who claimed they lost their jobs because of their race.The other plaintiffs are Robert Buckingham, Freedom Cheteni and Satya Rao. Other defendants include Larry Olsen, James Robinson, Robert Gallagher and the NMSU Board of Regents.The lawsuit alleges Martin publicly dismissed the plaintiff’s complaints and “attempted to coerce other faculty members and administrators at NMSU to bring plagiarism charges against Bird and Moraros”.The suit seeks compensatory payments and damages, as well as punitive fees from Martin and the other individual defendants.In previous interviews with The Daily Reveille, Martin has dismissed the allegations and said all proper steps were taken at NMSU to review Bird and Moraros’ complaints.—-Contact The Daily Reveille’s news staff at [email protected]