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http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/12/female_umdnj_professors_awarde.html

 

USA - WOMEN UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS' MAJOR VICTORY IN SEX DISCRIMINATION LAWSUIT

 

Kelly Heyboer/ The Star-Ledger - December 7, 2012

NEWARK — For years, female faculty members at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey suspected they were getting paid less than their male counterparts.

So the women used the state’s open public records law to gather salary data, then went to the public university’s administrators to ask for a change. When nothing happened, they filed a sex-discrimination lawsuit.

After five contentious years in court, the 10 professors have settled with UMDNJ for $4.65 million, their attorneys said today.

"This is a really big victory for the women faculty members at UMDNJ," said Neil Mullin, one of the attorneys. "UMDNJ has been treating them as second class citizens for as far back as records go."

Jeffrey Tolvin, a UMDNJ spokesman, said school officials declined to comment on the settlement.

The case was filed in 2007 by female faculty members in UMDNJ’s New Jersey Medical School, based in Newark. The group included top professors in the biochemistry, neurology, radiology, psychology and pathology departments.

According the lawsuit, the women compiled data showing female faculty members who were hired by UMDNJ as full professors earned a mean salary of $135,652, while men in the same position earned a mean salary of $154,768.

Women who were promoted to full professor from within the medical school did not fare much better, according to the lawsuit. Female professors earned $128,884, while men averaged $139,684.

The lawsuit also alleged it took women at UMDNJ an average of 20½ years to earn the rank of full professor after receiving their doctoral degrees, while the average man was promoted to full professor in 15½ years.

Mullin said UMDNJ fought the case "tooth and nail" in court for years. But after losing several key rulings in Superior Court, UMDNJ agreed to settlement talks. Steven Orlofsky, a former federal judge, served as mediator.

The settlement comes as UMDNJ is preparing to dissolve. Most of its schools, including the New Jersey Medical School, will become part of Rutgers University in July.

In addition to Mullin, the professors’ legal team included attorneys Nancy Erika Smith and Kevin Barber. The same legal team made headlines earlier this year when it represented a group of 10 minority police officers who sued NJ Transit for race discrimination in a case that was settled for $5.8 million.

The UMDNJ professors and university officials finalized their settlement deal Tuesday, Mullin said. The $4.65 million agreement includes money for the professors who brought the lawsuit. Some of the women will also receive raises.

The group includes: B.J. Wagner and Sylvia Christakos, professors of biochemistry and molecular biology; Ellen Townes-Anderson and Christine Rohowsky-Kochan, professors of neurology and neurosciences; Helene Hill and Gudrun Lange, professors of radiology; Patricia Fitzgerald-Bocarsly and Muriel Lambert, professors of pathology and laboratory medicine; Barbara Fadem, professor of psychology; and Pranela Rameshwar, professor in the department of medicine.

The professors hope the settlement will act as a deterrent and prompt UMDNJ, which has 13,300 employees, to increase the salaries of other women, their attorneys said.

"For decades, my clients have been paid less than men ... for no good reason," Mullin said.