Status of Cases
Catherine Shepard-Haier is assembling a data base on current UC discrimination cases.
WAGE is interested in archiving information about all kinds of discrimination at UC, not just
cases that affect women faculty, and about discrimination at other universities. Please send
information, clippings, reports -- anything someone with a case or researching discrimination
might find useful
to, WAGE/MacLachlan, 3857 Howe Street, Oakland, CA 94611-5404
UC Finally Reports
The University has now issued the reports mandated by the Torres Bill
(see Newsletters of
November 1994 ,
September 1995 and
Spring 1997 )
on the costs of outside attorneys hired for
cases where discrimination in appointments or promotions is alleged. The report for 1995 was
over a year late, that for 1996 only a few months. We owe thanks to Lieutenant Governor
Gray Davis and Assemblywoman Dion Aroner for getting UC to disgorge the numbers.
I did some arithmetic on these and earlier reports to find the following totals; the
numbers do not include the cost of UC in-house counsel, or money paid to claimants as part of
settlements or court-ordered judgments:
Through 1996, UC had spent only $3,262 on outside lawyers to fight Sue Carole
DeVale
and $183,513 in Marjorie
Mosier's
case. Mosier is now in court and DeVale's case is due to be
heard by the end of the year. The 1997 report should better indicate what UC has spent to drive
out these two distinguished academics.
Rudy
Acuna
took the prize: UC acknowledged spending $2,314,343 on outside attorneys
while losing the case. Acuna was awarded $326,000 and his attorneys $500,000. Did the judge
think his case so easily proved that the winning attorneys deserved only a fifth of what the
University paid theirs?
In Marcy Wong's case the figure is $139,393 for the same firm that lost to Acuna, a
bargain even if you count her $1 million settlement. UC will not have to report on Kathleen
Melez's case (it doesn't fit the Torres Bill requirements) but she tells me UC has just hired a
third outside law firm to fight her. Nobody wins but the lawyers -- certainly not the
taxpayers.
WAGE Activities
In April the Governing Council met in Oakland and heard a presentation from Angela
Spell on discrimination at the UC Davis Medical School.
In May WAGE participated in a
meeting
of the International Association of Women in
Music in Valencia. WAGE members Sue Carole DeVale, Elaine Barkin, Anne
MacLachlan, and Patty Wickman spoke of their experiences at a plenary
session on sex discrimination.
In June WAGE member Kathleen Melez spoke at an American Association of University
Women symposium on gender discrimination; the AAUW Legal Advocacy Fund is supporting
her case.
Also in June, Andrea Brown and Angel Luevano of the Department of Labor invited
WAGE to discuss the DOL audits of the Office of the President of UC and the UCB Campus.
Catherine Shepard-Haier and I had contacted employees who had experiences of
discrimination at UC that they could relate to the DOL and I had written on behalf of WAGE to
report my research on
IRS audits
of people with cases against UC. When Catherine and I met
with Ms. Brown and Mr. Luevano they could not discuss specifics, but they did outline the
material covered by the audits and they acknowledged receiving letters reporting people's
experience with discrimination at UC. We will be interested to see if these audits result in any
changes at UC.
In July, Jane Lundin and I met with Christina Maslach, Faculty Assistant on the Status of
Women at Berkeley, and Sheila O'Rourke, UCB Academic Compliance Affairs Officer. We had
written to welcome the new Chancellor and request a meeting to discuss mutual concerns
about ending discrimination and making the handling of cases quicker and kinder. We were
both impressed at the variety of early interventions Professor Maslach has been able to use to
resolve situations that suggested potential gender discrimination. She indicated that the
administration, and Vice Chancellor Carol Christ in particular, supported her work, and
pointed out that there have been no recent UCB faculty discrimination cases. We came away
with a better understanding of UCB's academic personnel practices and considerable hope that
faculty women's promotions are being better handled at Berkeley now than ten to fifteen years
ago when the recently settled cases were all generated. It is not clear that the other UC
campuses all have as effective programs in this area.
IRS Audit Update
Congressman Ron Dellums' office asked the IRS to explain why nine people who had
legal fights with UC had their tax returns audited (only 9 of the 19 we know to have been
audited wrote the required formal requests for information). The IRS responded that the
audits were triggered by the Discriminant Function Indicator (oddly called the DIF) which
yields a score generated by giving "weights to certain basic return characteristics," among
them legal expenses.
This still doesn't explain why more than half the people with cases got audited. Does the
IRS calculates a DIF score for everyone? If not, how did they select these returns? Any reader
who understands IRS procedures, please let me know.
Tax Deductible Status
I wish I could say we have finished the required paper work and that donations to WAGE
are now fully deductible, but I can't quite yet. I sent in the paperwork but more was requested;
I've sent the extra forms and I'm still waiting. I hope by the next newsletter this task will be
done. Meanwhile, please give what you can.
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