CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A black Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor began a hunger strike on Monday to protest the university's decision to deny him tenure.

NewsCenter 5's Jim Boyd reported that James Sherley, a professor of biological engineering, claims the move is based on racism.

"Professor Sherley's case was assessed and decided on the merits," MIT said in a statement released on Monday.

Sherley has been at the school since 1998.

"The issues that are at stake are not that I am just so bothered by not getting tenure at MIT, it is the reasons why I did not get tenure. A major reason is racism," Sherley said.

Sherley said he'll continue his hunger strike until MIT acknowledges that racism played a role in the decision to deny him tenure.

"Right now my plan is to continue this hunger strike until this administration admits that there was wrongdoing in my tenure review case and that a large part of that was racism," Sherley said.

Sherley filed a grievance, which was looked into by an ad hoc committee at MIT.

"The committee did not find any evidence that either racial discrimination or conflict of interest was a factor in Professor Sherley's tenure review, " MIT said in a statement.

"Racism is still amongst us and that is why I am on a hunger strike to get people to look at this problem at MIT, so maybe we can do something about it on the whole," Sherley said.