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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 1985)
Three win lawsuit Portland (AP) — Of the 22 women from eight Oregon col leges and Universities who sued the State System of Higher Education, only three won claims of sex discrimination. All three were from Western Oregon State College in Monmouth. The most well-known of the three women is Anna Penk, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. An associate professor of mathematics, she submitted four claims of discrimination and won one claiming she was denied promotion in 1983. U.S. District )udge Helen Frye ruled that Western Oregon State applied different standards for professional growth to Penk than to a man in a similar situation. Dr. Norman Nelson, who was promoted to full professor. Mary Ann Petry, a professor of art and art education, was dismissed from Western Oregon in a “reduction in force" in 1983. Petry said she was denied tenure while men in her department got it. She was treated less respectfully than men, left out of informal activities and was denied tenure in 1982 despite full qualifications, she said. Frye upheld Petry’s claim, saying she suffered from "un professional evaluations” by James Mattingly, the; "art area coordinator" in the Western Oregon Department of Creative Arts, who made sexist comments and created a “discriminatory work environment." History professor G. Joanne Ainspoker claimed she received a lower salary than an equally qualified male in a comparable situation. She earned $28,348 at Western Oregon in 1983. compared with $29,452 for Dr. Saumal Anderson. Frye ruled that the salary differential was attributable to sex discrimination. ~P ,, 1^ Continued from Page 1 That's why higher education officials were “encouraged" early in the trial that the board would win. Lemman said. The board will "review its policies and pro cedures" in regard to sex discrimination after stu dying Frye’s opinion and talking with members of the state's trial team, Lemman said. "Certainly, we think we can learn something from this." he said, adding that the board may release a report on the policies review in spring or summer. "Whenever you have a large faculty, there's bound to be individual cases of discrimination." Lemman said. "Where it does occur, we will cor rect it." "It cost a great deal to defend the case, and it would have cost even more if we had lost." Davis said. The state would have had to pay about $15 million in damages if the plaintiffs had won. The trial cost the state $2.9 million. Including $900,000 spent on a Philadelphia law firm that specializes in sex discrimination lawsuits. The suit was filed by 2.200 faculty women who sought about $:LL 1 million in back pay. but the class was reduced to an estimated 1.000 to 1.700 after Frye excluded non-teaching women of faculty rank. Eaton said that in similar discrimination cases that are “going on all over the country.” the two parties have sometimes settled out of court. The women who were discriminated against worked together with the institution where they taught. “I would have hoped that would have hap pened in the Penk trial,” she said. “Before the trial, there was a time when everyone could have sat down and worked it out.” “The tragedy of this case is that it has taken nearly five years, including nine months of trial, to resolve disputes which should have been resolved more rapidly and readily and with less cost in grievance procedures and administrative hearings.” Frye said. Meanwhile, Sen. Margie llcndrikscn is for mulating plans for public hearings designed to investigate claims that school administrators are retaliating against women who participated in or helped others prepare for the Penk trial. "! do know that there are women who had they have been affected by being involved as witnesses.” baton said. One woman at the University “spoke to her superior because she felt that things were hap pening to her in her professional life!, that would not have happened to her in her normal life, if she had not participated in the trial." she said. No legal action should come out of the hear ings, she said. They are scheduled to begin in late February or early March and are designed to give women an opportunity to tell others about the alleged retaliation, she said. COLOR REPRINTS from Color Negatives 31/2 x 5 4x6 5/$1 4/$1 YOUR CHOICE! Prints from Slides and Duplicate Slides 44* COLOR ENLARGEMENTS from Negatives or Slides 5x7 8 x 10 11 x 14 $-|19 $029 $049 i r minutes SUAB The Student University Af fairs Board approved the ap pointment of Carol Benedick and (ayashree Sil to the ASUO Elections Board at its Thursday meeting. The appointment of Martin Moll to the Elections Board was tabled until next week's meeting so that more in formation can be gathered, said David Long, SUAB member. SUAB also voted to remove fill Winters from its board because she did not have enough time to participate in SUAB. Long said. In other matters, SUAB con tinued discussion of open stu dent access to instructor evalua tions. The board met with University President Paul Olum earlier last week and discussed the proposed change. EMU Board At the Thursday meeting of the EMU Board, several .sub committees were formed. One subcommittee will study a variety of possible building renovations, said Mark Nalia. chair. This subcommittee will explore renovation of the older bowling alley and a possible ex pansion of EMU office space. Another subcommittee will seek alternatives to the white wall in the EMU lobby that previously held the University "statement of purpose" sign. The subcommittee plans to compile several options, but no final (incision will lx? made. Nalia said. The KMU Board also approv ed the extension of hours for the Skylight Refectory I.ounge. which now offers coffee until 10 p.m. IFC The Incidental Fee Commit tee approved the allocation of $17,208 for the Drug Informa tion Center's 1985-80 budget in its Monday budget hearing ses sion. The IFC also approved $10,042 for the Crisis Center. $5,332 for Off-Campus llous i n g . and $4.20 0 f o r Switchboard. At Tuesday's budget hear ings. SCAB received $8,085, MKChA received $5,399, Jewish Student Union received $2,005, Chinese Student Association received $4,190 and the Native American Student Union received $0,953. Wednesday's budget hearings included allocations of $0,134 to Forensics. $4,498 to the Asian American Student Union. $1,579 to Model United Na tions. and $1,579 to Political Science Student Union. The Singapore Students Association received $1,188 for its budget next year while the Foreign Student Organization got $9,714 in Thursday's budget hearings. Compiled by Scott McFetridge ^r mm PWlLlM CHINESE RESTAURANT ***** tl fat & Oriental Buffet Lunch Downstairs & Try Our Dinner Upstairs Hours: Downstairs M-Th 11.00 • 7:00; F-Se 11:00 • 4:3C Closed Sundays Hours: Upstairs Su-Th 4:30 • 10:00 F-Sa 5:00 10:30 1275 Alder Street • 603 88b
