United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 22-2516 SONGIE ADEBIYI, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SOUTH SUBURBAN COLLEGE, et al., Defendants-Appellees. ____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 1:20-cv-02031 — Steven Charles Seeger, Judge. ____________________

ARGUED JANUARY 10, 2023 — DECIDED APRIL 17, 2024 ____________________

Before SCUDDER, KIRSCH, and JACKSON-AKIWUMI, Circuit Judges. JACKSON-AKIWUMI, Circuit Judge. Songie Adebiyi spent nearly two decades working at South Suburban College in South Holland, Illinois. She was Vice President of Student Services when the college terminated her in 2019, citing per- formance issues. Adebiyi alleges that the college was in fact retaliating against her for filing a charge with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the 2 No. 22-2516 Illinois Department of Human Rights. The district court granted summary judgment to the college and its president, whom Adebiyi also sued, because Adebiyi failed to show a causal link between her charge of discrimination and her ter- mination. We agree that the evidence in the record does not support Adebiyi’s retaliation claim. We therefore affirm the judgment. I

We recount the facts in the light most favorable to Adebiyi as the party opposing summary judgment. Dunlevy v. Langfelder, 52 F.4th 349, 353 (7th Cir. 2022). Adebiyi, who is African American, began working at South Suburban College as a manager in 2000. She received promotions over the years and, in 2008, became Vice President of Student Services. In this role, she oversaw certain departments and programs, in- cluding the athletic center and the student counseling depart- ment, which housed the college’s Latino Center. Adebiyi reported directly to the college president. Donald Manning, a white man, held that position from 2012 until he announced in early 2018 that he would retire later that year. On April 12, 2018, the college’s board of directors approved Lynette Stokes, an African American woman who was Vice President of Academic Services, as the new President-Elect. Manning began delegating some of his tasks to Stokes in the months leading up to his retirement. On April 17, 2018, a few days after Stokes became Presi- dent-Elect, faculty union president G.A. Griffin called a meet- ing with Manning, Stokes, and human resources director Kim Pigatti to discuss complaints against Adebiyi. Several coun- seling department employees complained about Adebiyi’s No. 22-2516 3 leadership style and accused her of enabling a toxic work en- vironment. Griffin gave examples of incidents, all of which centered around how the Latino Center was run. Stokes then met with Adebiyi to discuss the complaints and concluded that the concerns raised by Griffin were unfounded. The col- lege therefore took no disciplinary action against Adebiyi. But these events affected Adebiyi because she sought a two-week medical leave after meeting with Stokes. At the end of the medical leave, on May 1, 2018, Adebiyi filed a formal internal complaint alleging race discrimination, harassment, and bul- lying. On May 17, 2018, she also filed a charge with the EEOC and the IDHR alleging harassment based on race, retaliation for opposing discrimination, and unequal pay. Manning and Pigatti investigated Adebiyi’s internal com- plaint for approximately two months and produced a report of their findings in July 2018. They concluded that Adebiyi’s complaint was unfounded. However, they reported that there was