Judge Larry G. Ford dismissed five of eight counts in a lawsuit filed in September, including a claim of employment discrimination.

He denied the college’s request to dismiss the entire lawsuit, leaving claims of breach of contract and emotional distress for a possible jury trial.

He also ordered two lawsuits filed separately against Livingstone by three of the professors combined with the larger lawsuit.

Those lawsuits claim discrimination based on federal statutes, said Gary Rhodes, an attorney representing some of the professors.

The professors who brought the lawsuit against the historically-black college claim college officials prevented them from advancing professionally because they are white.

They also claim Livingstone officials treated them differently than black professors and subjected them to emotional distress.

The only two professors named in the lawsuit who still teach at Livingstone — Robert Russ and Robert MacKinnon — have dropped their claims of emotional distress.

“My understanding ... is that those particular counts would require quite a bit of evidence to support it,” MacKinnon said Thursday. “Although it is occurring, we did not feel we could document it, quantify it in some sense.”

MacKinnon said he will focus on the largest of the lawsuit’s claims, the breach of contract, for which each defendant is asking $300,000 in actual damages, plus punitive damages.

Dr. Arthur Steinberg, one of the professors suing the college — who the college recently fired — called the lawsuits “intact.”

“It’s going to start picking up some speed now,” he said. “We’re moving forward.”

In his ruling, Judge Ford dismissed claims for:employment discrimination; disparate treatment; wrongful demotion; wrongful employment action in violation of public policy; and defamation.

In a brief supporting the motion to dismiss, Livingstone’s lawyers say the professors failed to exhaust administrative remedies for their claims.