Opinion ID: 433589
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: background: affirmative-action efforts

Text: 15 Neither Title VII, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, nor the Fourteenth Amendment requires an employer to institute an affirmative-action program, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e-2(j) (1976); Burdine, supra, 450 U.S. at 259, 101 S.Ct. at 1096; Rizzo v. Goode, 423 U.S. 362, 375-76, 96 S.Ct. 598, 606, 46 L.Ed.2d 561 (1976), but evidence that an employer has failed to live up to an affirmative-action plan is relevant to the question of discriminatory intent. E.g., Teletype Corp., supra, 648 F.2d at 1135 n. 14. And, although a trial judge need not make specific findings on all facts nor refer to every item of evidence introduced in a lengthy trial, [t]he reviewing court deserves the assurance that the trial court has come to grips with apparently irreconcilable conflicts in the evidence ... and has distilled therefrom true facts in the crucible of his conscience. Keystone Plastics, Inc. v. C & P Plastics, Inc., 506 F.2d 960, 962 (5th Cir.1975). The magistrate's near-complete failure to address the evidence concerning the defendants' affirmative-action efforts reduces our confidence in his ultimate conclusions. 16 The Minnesota State University system has had an affirmative-action plan since 1972. The defendants often did not abide by the plan. They did not set goals and timetables for promotion through the academic ranks, V.15.33-39, 160, or for chair positions, V.15.133-34. Nor did they set timetables for appointing women to administrative positions. V.15.111-15. The defendants advance a number of reasons for these omissions. They assert that it was not the intent of the plan to require goals and timetables for promotions in academic rank, but only for appointment to new or vacant positions. E.g., V.15.33-40. They further aver that they do not set goals for chair positions because the selection process is prescribed by the collective-bargaining agreement between SCSU and IFO/MEA and is beyond their control. E.g., V.15.133-34. 10 In fact, the plan adopted in 1974 provided: 17 Hiring practices shall be structured to increase the number of qualified ... women in the Chancellor's office and at each college within the system. 18