October 23, 2008

Gender-Bias Gadfly Summons Others to Bite Columbia U.

Having settled her own long-running legal battle against Columbia University, the prominent economist Graciela Chichilnisky is now urging other women on the faculty there to band together to press similar claims of gender bias and to sue, if necessary, to get equal pay.

And Ms. Chichilnisky, a professor of economics and statistics, is hoping to get the women she brings together to form something Columbia’s administrators and lawyers have not confronted before: a “trust” representing aggrieved faculty members, similar to the legal trusts that have been formed on behalf of the plaintiffs in some major civil lawsuits.

A lawyer who advised Ms. Chichilnisky in her settlement talks, Jan R. Schlichtmann, knows a thing or two about forming such legal entities. In the course of a career in civil litigation that inspired a Hollywood movie — John Travolta portrayed him in A Civil Action — Mr. Schlichtmann has represented trusts established for people affected by a warehouse explosion in Danvers, Mass., and for New England communities where shade trees have been harmed by leaks from natural-gas pipelines. (He did not return several calls seeking comment.)

For her part, Ms. Chichilnisky is claiming victory in the settlement she reached with Columbia in June, citing provisions that award her $200,000 — on top of $500,000 from an earlier agreement — as well as continued employment as a tenured professor and office space she had sought.

The university, however, has sounded a similarly triumphant note. It issued a statement on the settlement that says: “After years of fruitless litigation and trial days in which a number of her key claims were dismissed by the court or shown to be groundless, Prof. Chichilnisky agreed to a public and binding settlement for a fraction of the money she had sought in which she specifically acknowledged that her salary was not discriminatory and dropped all of her current and past claims against the university.” —Peter Schmidt

Comments

1. How does it work: When this type of suit is brought against a capitalist business the ringleader is referred to a “pioneer in women’s rights” or a “gender equality activist,” but when she is harassing an institute of higher learning — especially a smugly progressive one — the designation suddenly becomes “gadfly”?

   — J. Ward    Oct 23, 04:29 PM    #

2. Why would you want to keep working there?
   Getting tired of cry babies.

   — Captain America    Oct 23, 04:57 PM    #

3. Why not, she was just in it for the money. Now she can just sit on her B— and get paid for it. God Bless America.

   — Joe the Screwed    Oct 23, 05:30 PM    #

4. Prof. Chichilnisky is a very accomplished economist and is quite worthy of her position. Comment #3 seems to presume otherwise, but for no apparent reason.

   — CU Alum    Oct 23, 05:52 PM    #

5. But if she really was inequitably treated, and I don’t think we know, and perhaps no one really does, given how long it all took to get to this point, a partial award (truly fractional? again, we don’t know), etc., etc., but if she was in fact mistreated, then that shouldn’t happen. I would hope (probably against hope though) that we could, and would, all agree with that. Even if there is disagreement about what exactly should be done about it, hopefully, as decent people, we could all agree with that much.

   — DDVA    Oct 23, 06:06 PM    #

6. Rest assured, if the university coughed up any settlement amount, there was merit to the plaintiff’s claim. #2, pray that you aren’t the target of unfair treatment someday. On the other hand, it might open your eyes a bit!

   — Gilda    Oct 23, 07:59 PM    #

7. The Chronicle of Higher Education has long demonstrated its bias against women scholars. I find it incredible that a journalistic outlet would stoop to calling accomplished female scholars who ask for equal (not special) treatment … “gadflys.” If this were an anomaly, that would be one thing. But the Chronicle does it over and over in a variety of subtle ways. Is there not an editor there with any sensitivity to language and gender? I for one would call upon the editors to stop calling women that seek equal treatment “gadflys” and “screamers.” It is demeaning and tiresome.

   — watch your media bias    Oct 24, 09:08 AM    #

8. To #2 You imply that one should quit because of inequality. If we all did that, no one would be challenged and the environment would be business as usual. Kudos to Chichilnisky and her supporters.

   — #9    Oct 24, 11:15 AM    #

9. Brilliant or not, discriminated against or not, I get the feeling that Professor Chichilnisky’s nasty personality probably infuses every relationship she has. I’ve known a few like her. Sad, really, to have to go through life with that handicap. To gain the world, only to lose your soul. I hope that one day she awakes.

   — Dee Dee    Oct 24, 02:57 PM    #

10. I’ve spent a few hours with Prof. Chichilnisky — not much, I realize, but surely more than Dee Dee (#9) has — and didn’t observe any unpleasantness. She seemed to have quite an ego, but so do several of the men in her department.

    Fwiw, I’m a man and a skeptic of her claims.

    — CU Alum    Oct 27, 05:38 PM    #

11. As a supporter of Prof. Chichilnisky, let me address some points left unclear in the article.
    The settlement gave her a salary raise to a level she did not think discriminatory, and she then agreed in the settlement to no longer describe it as discriminatory. For further proof, see the Faculty Senate Report on her salary on her website.
    If the university wants to avoid so-called fruitless litigation then it should avoid unjust and illegal discrimination.
    And if people do not have first hand knowledge of Prof. Chichilnisky’s character then they should not speculate on what they think – based presumably on prejudice – it might be. I have known her for 20 years and have never seen anything approaching ‘nasty’ and if she were just in it for the money she would have accepted a truly huge sum offered if she agreed to leave the university. Her goal was to seek justice for herself as well as other women academics.

    — Randall Dodd    Oct 28, 03:53 PM    #

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