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An Oakland City University women’s soccer coach has filed a lawsuit against the university that claims the school hasn’t paid her or other employees since late April.
Plaintiff Chelsea Price filed the lawsuit on June 1 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana and is seeking class action status to represent other employees in the same situation. The lawsuit names Oakland City University, a private college in southwest Indiana, as the defendant.
According to the lawsuit, Price has not been paid since April 27. She estimates that more than 100 university employees also haven’t been paid despite doing their jobs.
Attorneys for Price did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Indiana Lawyer reached out to Todd Mosby, the university’s associate vice president for development, marketing and communications, for comment Wednesday but did not hear back before this story was published.
A similar lawsuit was filed against Oakland City University at the state level. On June 8, James Wilder, who is currently employed in a donor relations and marketing assistant role at Oakland City, filed a lawsuit in Gibson Superior Court against the university, claiming he’s not been paid for at least three weeks. He filed the lawsuit under the Indiana Wage Payment Statute.
His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuits follow an announcement earlier this spring that the university would be laying off more than 100 employees due to ongoing financial troubles.
In April, Oakland City filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, with the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, saying it would lay off 167 employees starting June 1, Inside INdiana Business reported. Mosby said at the time that the filing was only precautionary.
A May 19 news release from the university announced that the layoffs would be effective May 31, but it didn’t specify how many employees would be affected.
According to WEHT-TV Channel 25 in Evansville, employees saw their paychecks delayed in mid-May because of a bank transfer issue. Mosby told WEHT that the university was working on the issue but did not give a timeline as to when it would be resolved.
The university has also suspended undergraduate programs for the 2026-2027 academic year but is preparing to resume them in the 2027-2028 academic year, according to Inside INdiana Business. The school’s graduate programs will remain in place.
Price is suing the university for violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and the Indiana Wage Payment Statute. She is seeking damages under both laws, including the sum of all unpaid wages.
The cases are Chelsea Price v. Oakland City University, founded by General Baptists, Inc., 3:26-cv-00118-MPB-CSW and James Wilder v. Oakland City University, 26D01-2606-PL-001192.
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