Opinion ID: 170111
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Engagement in protected activity

Text: Appellants clearly engaged in various acts of protected activity by voicing their concerns and complaints to their supervisors and superiors within the University of Denver. As the Magistrate Judge correctly noted, informal complaints to superiors constitute protected activity. See Hertz v. Luzenac America, Inc., 370 F.3d 1014, 1015 (10th Cir.2004). One example of the Appellants' protected activity can be found in their May 19, 2003, meeting with Dean Kvistad and Susan Lee, Director of the Office of Diversity & Equal Opportunity. At this meeting, the Appellants made clear their concerns about the environment of the workplace and their perceived disparate treatment by others in that workplace. This, along with other various instances of informal complaints to supervisors, satisfies prong one, the protected activity requirement. Hertz, 370 F.3d at 1015 (informal complaints about perceived unlawful discrimination constitute protected activity).