Columbia, Prof. Reach Second Gender Dispute Settlement

Columbia University and a star professor who accused it of gender discrimination have settled their lawsuit, ending a decade-long dispute that was closely watched by women’s rights groups.The economics professor, Graciela Chichilnisky, accused Columbia of continuing to pay her less than her male counterparts even after the two sides reached a $500,000 settlement on similar issues in 1995. Ms. Chichilnisky was not quite as successful this time around, receiving a $200,000 settlement but once again failing to extract an admission of wrongdoing from Columbia.Still, she said, the agreement was a victory for female professors at the university.“The exact number isn’t as important as the principle that it was a substantial amount of money that the university had to pay,” she said. “And that has to do with who is right and who is wrong.”Following the first trial, Ms. Chichilnisky filed suit again in 2000, claiming that Columbia continued to pay her unfairly and harassed her in retaliation for her complaints. The University filed counterclaims alleging that Ms. Chichilnisky was delinquent in her duties and had secretly run a consulting company on the side. All allegations were dropped as part of the settlement, which was reached on Thursday but was not announced until Ms. Chichilnisky’s attorney informed the New York Sun about it yesterday.Columbia noted that the plaintiff agreed her current salary is nondiscriminatory as part of the settlement.“The University is pleased with the terms of the settlement, which only highlight how unnecessary it was for this litigation to have continued so long in the first place,” a school spokesman, Robert Hornsby, said in a statement.Ms. Chichilnisky’s lawyer, Robert Felix, said she had little choice but to settle due to several adverse rulings in the case. Often addressing the plaintiff in impatient tones, the judge refused to allow parts of expert testimony from a statistician who had analyzed the salaries of Columbia’s professors and concluded that they were discriminatory.“In my view, we weren’t able to present our whole case,” Mr. Felix said. “It put us in a very disadvantageous position.”The plaintiff did have a few cards in her favor. A former vice provost testified that Columbia officials had reacted to Ms. Chichilnisky’s gender and ordered him to make her life difficult.The trial was monitored by the press and women’s rights groups, which raised money for Ms. Chichilnisky and seated members in the audience to show their support. The outcome “could have better,” a legal advocate for the American Association of University Women, Mildred DeWitt, said.“No one is allowed to say she’s been discriminated against, and every issue is considered null and void at this time,” Ms. DeWitt said. “I was hoping it would be more clear cut in the favor of gender discrimination.”Ms. Chichilnisky said she will keep her tenured position at Columbia, but the university said she will lose some office space and other perks that she gained after winning her first lawsuit.

Columbia, Prof. Reach Second Gender Dispute Settlement

Columbia, Prof. Reach Second Gender Dispute Settlement

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