x.com/chrisbrunet/status/2054629975223865455

The image in the post quotes paragraph 60 of Dr. Sean Wang’s complaint, which says the race entry appeared on SMU’s "Faculty Permission to Hire Form." That is a hiring/appointment form, not a tenure or promotion-review form.

SMU’s official policy says: "A draft letter of appointment and the faculty permission to hire form will be prepared by the Dean and submitted to the Provost for review." SMU’s faculty-search FAQ further says Form 3 is what tracks approval before a candidate is made an offer: "All offers must be approved by both the dean and the provost before the candidate is made an offer; this is tracked through Form 3."

By contrast, SMU’s separate promotion-and-tenure policy describes a different process entirely: promotion/tenure is evaluated later through a dossier, external reviewers, department/school review, Dean review, Provost review, and President review. The policy states that the tenure process normally occurs in the candidate’s sixth year and that the supporting documents are reviewed through the promotion-and-tenure pipeline.

So the evidence in the image does not show a form entry made "to justify denying him a promotion." It shows an allegedly incorrect race classification on a pre-offer hiring form. Whether that later related to discrimination allegations is a matter of the lawsuit, but calling this form entry something done to justify a promotion denial misstates what the document is and when in the employment process it was used.