ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 24, 1996 TAG: 9609240081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
AFTER HAVING THEIR INITIAL CASE thrown out of court, six male professors prevailed in a lawsuit that asserted a recent pay increase for their female colleagues went against the school's merit-based raise policy.
Virginia Commonwealth University has reached a tentative settlement in a lawsuit filed by six male professors who objected to raises given to their female colleagues.
The professors sued after the university gave female faculty members raises totaling $440,000 in 1992.
The raises were given after a university study in 1989 showed a $1,354 salary differential that could not be attributed to permissible factors, such as academic rank and experience. Another study two years later showed a $1,982 difference.
The university did not consider performance factors, contending they would be too difficult to quantify.
The male professors contended that the raises violated the university's tradition of granting merit-based raises.
``My clients are elated,'' Bradley Cavedo, attorney for the professors, said of the settlement reached Monday. ``They did it because they believe in the university. They felt a sex-based pay raise was not in the university's best interest.''
Cavedo said the settlement obliges VCU to return to a merit-based pay system. Any future study of salaries will include direct measures of performance.
Financial aspects of the settlement were confidential, he said.
The settlement has been submitted to the office of Gov. George Allen, who would have to approve the deal, said Mark Miner, a spokesman for the state attorney general.
VCU's president, Eugene Trani, declined comment on the case until Allen makes a final decision, said university spokeswoman Melissa Burnside.
The lead plaintiff in the case said the settlement, and a favorable ruling earlier this year by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, will have national repercussions.
``The most important thing that it's going to do is make it very difficult for any university to make the kind of slipshod study that caused this problem,'' said Ted Smith, a professor of mass communications. ``We are in favor of pay equity; we just think it has to be done correctly.''
The suit was originally filed by five professors in 1993. A sixth professor joined this summer, said Cavedo.
The suit was thrown out in 1994 by U.S. District Judge Richard Williams before it went to trial. He found insufficient grounds to challenge the university's actions. The professors then appealed.
A panel of the Court of Appeals reinstated the case in August 1995, and the full court upheld that ruling in May. The case had been scheduled to go to trial Monday before Williams.
A recent study by the American Association of University Professors found that there are still disparities between the salaries of male and female faculty members.
In the 1995-96 school year, men who were full professors earned an average of $66,740, while women earned $58,990, the study found.
The difference narrowed as the rank decreased. Among instructors, males earned $31,550, compared with $30,340 for women.
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