Winthrop employee fired amid EEOC complaint. School denies retaliation claims
Amy Bailey, a former employee of Winthrop University, was fired after filing a federal discrimination complaint, but the university denies it was retaliation.
The public university in Rock Hill cited “misconduct” as the reason for her dismissal in its termination letter, which Bailey provided to The Charlotte Observer. Bailey alleges it was retaliation for her filing of a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after she says a supervisor used a racial slur.
“We’re a local, community institution, so I just assumed that if I spoke up, they’d be ethical,” Bailey said. “All I did was make a complaint about someone using a slur. And now I’m fired.”
Winthrop denies the allegations, saying Bailey was dismissed solely for her conduct.
“Ms. Bailey was dismissed from employment at Winthrop based on documented reasons consistent with the university’s progressive discipline policy. Those reasons had nothing to do with Ms. Bailey’s EEOC charge or anything other than her conduct,” a spokesperson for the university said in a written statement to The Observer. “Upon being informed of the University’s decision, Ms. Bailey would not listen to the explanation of the University’s determination by human resources.”
The EEOC is the federal agency that enforces laws against job discrimination and illegal practices like biased hiring, unequal pay or harassment. Once an incident is reported to the EEOC, the first stage is usually an attempt to settle the matter through mediation or counseling. If that doesn’t work, such as in this case, the agency then can allow a formal complaint to be filed and will conduct an investigation.
What happened
Bailey first reported in an anonymous email to the Winthrop board of trustees in summer 2024 that her supervisor, Tammie Philips, used a racial slur in casual conversation multiple times, according to Bailey’s EEOC report. Philips is executive director of the president’s office.
“Even though I am white, this made me very uncomfortable,” Bailey said in her complaint. “I had never been around someone who used this type of language before, and I was very taken aback by it.”
In its response to the EEOC, Winthrop said Philips acknowledged using the slur on one occasion but said it was “not in the context of Phillips referring to Bailey, to any Winthrop employee or student, or about any person.” Instead, it said “she was recounting what someone else said which she found to be inappropriate.”
Within a week, Bailey was moved to a new position. The university’s general counsel, Todd Hagins, was fired in a move he claims was related to him advising against restructuring Bailey’s role and reducing her responsibilities.
The board of trustees later promoted Phillips to be its acting secretary.
Hagins filed his own EEOC complaint against Winthrop in May, claiming he lost his job as general counsel in September 2024 for “opposing discriminatory and retaliatory actions” at the university and notifying leadership “of a number of illegal activities occurring at the school.”
The school denied “all allegations of racism and retaliation,” a university spokesperson told the Rock Hill Herald in May.
“The described incidents were fully investigated and addressed appropriately as required by law,” Ellen Wilder-Byrd, Winthrop associate vice president for communications and marketing, said in a written statement in May. “As this is an ongoing legal matter, we cannot comment further at this time.”
Hagins, who previously served as director of compliance at the University of South Carolina, called the termination of an employee with an active federal complaint “highly unusual.”
“I will say it’s a pretty aggressive maneuver,” he said.
Hagins filed a separate lawsuit against Winthrop in September on different grounds, alleging the board of trustees violated South Carolina’s open meetings law.
This story was originally published December 31, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
