A woman who filed an age discrimination suit against National American University is having her day in court this week.

Kathy D. Jones, 60, filed the civil suit in U.S. District Court in 2006. The trial began Wednesday.

Jones was hired as an NAU admissions representative in June 1998. She claims she was denied promotion to the position of campus director of enrollment management based on her age.

According to the complaint filed in federal court, administrators initially interviewed Jones and two other candidates for the job. They then offered the position to the other two - both of them younger, less experienced men. Both declined the position.

Jones was named interim director in July 2004, but in August 2004, administrators hired a younger woman for the job. Jones said the woman did not apply for the director's position but for a vacant admissions representative job.

"I performed remarkably well during that tenure (from July to August 2004) and yet was never honestly considered for the position," Jones said in her court complaint.

The trial before U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier is scheduled to run through the week.

Contact Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419 or heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com