Vol. 76, No. 92 Eugene, Oregon 97403
The weather machine is still
pumping out warm sunny
weather through Wednes
day. No chance of rain, so
soak up the sun.
Tuesday, Jan. 21, 1975
Investigation of University is suspended
By TOM FLUHARTY
Of the Emerald
A two-year investigation of sev
eral University departments to de
termine compliance with the
Equal Pay Act has been sus
pended pending a Supreme Court
ruling sad a U.S. Department of
Labor spokesperson.
Compliance officer Bob Hall, of
the labor department’s Wage and
Hour Division, said word was re
ceived from Washington not to
work on any Fair Labor Standards
Act cases, of which the Equal Pay
Act is a part, that involve civic
agencies. This includes state,
county and city organizations. The
University is a state institution.
According to Hall, interviewed
Thursday, the labor department is
awaiting a ruling by the Supreme
Court regarding the constitutional
ity of the 1974 amendments of the
Equal Pay Act.
Hall said the investigation of the
academic staff was started two
years ago when an investigation
of the custodial staff was also
begun. That case has just recently
been completed, with the staff
being awarded back pay and
raises as a result of an out-of
court settlement.
Myra Willard, affirmative action
director, explained that the inves
tigation was begun to determine it
the University complied with the
Equal Pay Act amendments of
July, 1972, which included pro
fessional people under the Act.
The salaries of the professional
staff were studied to find out if they
were being given equal pay for
equal skill, work and responsibil
ity.
She said, “We wanted to look at
Drawing by Guy Michel
HEW issues new statement on
hiring discrimination
By HARRIET JOHNSON
Of the Emerald
The University has been told
to hire the best qualified per
sons for any position “without
regard to race, sex, or ethnic
ity.”
These familiar words from
the Department of Health,
Education and Welfard (HEW)
were first heard on camDus in
an executive order issued by
President Johnson in 1965.
Now they have a new meaning.
A memorandum from Peter
Holmes, director of the Office
for Civil Rights of HEW, indi
cates that equal opportunity
employment programs should
not include “reverse discrimi
nation" against other job ap
plicants, such as white males.
“A major purpose of the af
firmative provision of th execu
tive order is t broaden the pool
of applicants so that women
and minorities will be consi
dered for employment along
with all other applicants,” the
memo said. The executive
order “does not require that job
requirements be waived or
lowered in order to attract
women and other minority
candidates.
"The oollege or university,
not the federal government, is
to say what constitutes qualifi
cation for any position,” ac
cording to the memo. HEW,
however, monitors affirmative
action programs to determine if
there has been a sufficient
number of minority applicants.
Complaints can be filed with
the Equal Employment Com
mission about discrimination.
Withholding of federal funds
can result, although this rarely
occurs, according to Harry Al
pert, University vice-president
for academic affairs.
“Quotas are unconstitu
tional,” says Alpert, but the
University is “doing all it can to
insure that women and
minorities get equal considera
tion." Alpert feels that the
Holmes memorandum clears
up difficulties from misunder
standing of the original execu
tive order, and does not make
any real changes in the regula
tions. Myra Willard, director of
the University's Office of Affir
mative Action, is “pleased that
the Holmes memorandum
closely conforms to our original
policy."
The University’s revised
statement on equal opportunity
and affirmative action appears
in the Jan. 16 issue of Oregon
Week. It declares “that dis
crimination based on race,
color, religion, sex, age, hand
icap or national origin shall not
exist in the University." This
policy, which has been in effect
since 1972, provides a prog
ram for all Jobs on campus,
which is administered by the
Office of Affirmative Action, as
well as the director of Univer
sity relations and the vice
presidents.
The affirmative action pro
gram is in "good-faith com
pliance" with the executive
order, according to Alpert. As
specified in the Holmes
memorandum, recruitment in
cluding advertising and job re
quirements for positions are
made without designation to
race, sex, or ethnicity. If re
cruitment efforts do not yield an
applicant pool which includes a
proportion of minorities, the re
cruitment period for all can
dates may be extended. Wil
lard says this happens "not
very often, only in areas of sig
nificant underutilization, where
you would expect women and
minorities to apply.” All job re
quirements must be "bona fide
qualifications’’ that are job
related.
The University has set affir
mative action objectives, in
cluding "to increase the emp
loyment of women and minority
group persons and merit ser
vice positions at least equival
ent to their availability within
comparable work forces.” It
aims “to maintain salary equity
between male and female em
ployes and between minority
and non-minority employes in
every job category."
The program has provisions
for equal treatment of all emp
loyes, concerning relations
while on the job, as well as be
nefits and promotions. "To im
prove the ratio of female and
minority admissions in Ph.D.
and other graduate and pro
fessional programs, and “to
maintain proportionate re
presentation ot women ana
minorities on appointive com
mittees” are also included in
the program.
That is the policy, but how
does it work? James M. Harris,
president of the National Edu
cation Association, feels that
"fully qualified women and
minorities have been sys
tematically exluded from top
faculty jobs while preference
was given to white males." Re
ferring to the Homes
memorandum, he said, "we
must not allow the HEW state
ment to be used as a new de
fense for the old bigoted think
ing.”
Willard, on the other hand,
said the University met its
numerical goals for last year.
These goals are based on a
utilization analysis of the data
on the availability of women
and minorities qualified for fil
ling vacancies. The
University's goals are multiple,
divided into professional
schools, the College of Liberal
Arts, administration and fi
nance and student services.
"Goals may not be rigid and
inflexible quotas which must be
met," according to the law. Wil
lard adds that goals may be al
(Continued on Page2)
all the women on campus along
with men comparatives.’’
According to Willard, the inves
tigation was first begun in the li
brary in order to develop a tech
nique of research. The inves
tigators came up with a.com
puterized regression analysis
which told the criteria for salary
determination. The salaries were
then compared to each other.
The next step, according to Wil
lard, was the formation of a faculty
committee to extend the investiga
tion to the entire University. She
said that shortly afterwards the
Wage and Hour Division wanted
to limit the inquiry to four or five
departments.
The purpose of the committee,
according to Excutive Dean John
Lallas, was to determine
guidelines on which the investiga
tion was to be based.
He also said the experimental
investigation of the library to which
Willard referred was to develop
criteria of what a teacher does and
give a basis on which to determine
if two persons are doing equal
work. Some definitions had to be
developed, he explained.
Hall refused to give any details
about the present findings of the
investigation.
He stated that the case was still
considered to be under investiga
tion even if it was suspended.
Therefore he said, the case is still
regarded as confidential.
Harry Alpert, Vice-president for
academic affairs and provost,
commented that the Wage and
Hour Division asked the Univer
sity to provide them with informa
tion about four areas of the Uni
versity. He named biology, physi
cal education, classics, Japanese
and Chinese, and the housing de
partment as the areas now being
investigated.
It appears, however, that the in
vestigation was suspended be
fore much work was complete.
Sanford Tepfer, biology de
partment head, said he did not
think it would be appropriate to
comment on the investigation at
this time, since no one has dis
cussed it with him yet. He said he
just received notification “a couple
of weeks ago" that an investiga
tion was under way.
Tepfer said he approves of the
investigation, but thinks it's dif
ficult to determine what’s equal
The head of the Department of
Classics, Chinese and Japanese,
Angela Palandri, said her depart
ment has also been notified, but
she has not heard anything else.
Philip Barnhart, housing de
partment director, was unavaila
ble for comment due to what his
secretary described as illness.
Vernon Sprague, P.E. depart
ment head, said approximately
three years ago there was a major
equating of all salaries in the de
partment and it has continued that
way. He added that proportion
ately the P.E. department has
more women on its faculty than
any other department.