THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 24, 1996 TAG: 9609240281
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 65 lines
A tentative settlement averted a trial Monday in a lawsuit by five male professors against their employer, Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, that tested the limits of affirmative action. The men were fighting a $440,000 lump-sum payment to 170 female professors aimed at correcting salary inequities.
Terms of the proposed agreement were not revealed, and university officials declined comment Monday until the deal was finalized.
Gov. George F. Allen must approve any such court settlement involving a state university. Lawyers in his office are reviewing it, but he is not due back until Oct. 2 from a trade mission to Europe, according to the attorney general's office, which represented the university.
Bradley Cavedo, lawyer for the male professors, also said he could not discuss details of the settlement. He said his clients were pleased, however.
``It's a terrific settlement for the plaintiffs,'' Cavedo said. ``It's also a good settlement for VCU.''
The male professors were upset that the university in 1992 gave raises to 172 female professors on the basis of a salary survey that showed that they were underpaid compared to men of similar experience. The men argued in their 1993 suit that the survey did not account for teaching loads, quality of teaching and quantity of research.
Since then, the lawsuit first was thrown out of court at the trial level, then reinstated last year by a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals after the male professors appealed. VCU appealed in turn to the full Court of Appeals, but lost there, too, and the case was sent back for trial.
VCU has agreed to never again use the same type of salary analysis, Cavedo said. The university must include performance measures in future salary studies.
``Women who have been discriminated against can bring that case,'' Cavedo said. ``We have no problem with that.''
The case had attracted attention from across the country, with national organizations throwing support behind both factions.
The Center for Individual Rights in Washington had backed the male professors. ``While questionable regression analyses have been used to justify gender-exclusive pay raises at universities throughout the country, this lawsuit marks the first successful challenge to such a system,'' the center said Monday.
The American Association of University Professors in Washington supported Virginia Commonwealth's position. Anne H. Franke, counsel for the association, said the aborted trial means that the question of what criteria are proper to use in salary surveys aimed at checking discrimination remains muddy, at least in the states covered by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. That appellate court had sent the lawsuit back to the U.S. District Court in Richmond for a trial to explore that question. In addition to Virginia, the states covered include Maryland, West Virginia and North and South Carolina.
But a settlement should not stop other universities from conducting such surveys, Franke said.
``Salary discrimination is very important, and it's likely that there's quite a bit of it going on out there,'' she said. ``We urge institutions to take a look at themselves.''
Parties to the suit said late last week that they hoped to settle before Monday's scheduled trial. The settlement announced Monday was ``in process'' then, Cavedo said; on Monday, the District Court trial judge agreed to postpone the trial pending the governor's approval of the agreement. MEMO: Staff writer Aleta Payne contributed to this report.
KEYWORDS: SETTLEMENT LAWSUIT VCU by CNB