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

Heading: craik

Text: 70 Craik alleges that she was subjected to unlawful discrimination when she was not appointed chair of the Psychology Department in 1976. The magistrate, analyzing the evidence under the McDonnell Douglas test, held that while Craik had made out a prima facie case, the defendants articulated legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons for selecting Dr. Peterson, a man, over Craik, and that Craik had failed to show that those reasons were pretextual. In light of our holding that the defendants were guilty of classwide discrimination with respect to chair appointments, this method of analysis was erroneous. The Franks-Teamsters model should have been applied, under which the defendants would have the burden of persuading the trial court that they had not discriminated against Craik. Normally, we would remand this claim for reconsideration under the proper standard. Here, however, we believe that even under the McDonnell Douglas test, the holding against Craik was clear error, and we therefore reverse. 71 In the spring of 1975 the incumbent chair of the Psychology Department, Dr. Knutson, announced that he would not continue as chair beyond the end of that quarter. The department selected a committee to conduct a search for a permanent chair, and, since there was an opening on the faculty, held an external search. Craik was one of the candidates for the chair position. 72 After seven finalists, including two women, had been selected, members of the search committee and members of the department faculty at large began to disagree about the requirements of affirmative action. The search committee discussed the issue at great length. When the committee decided to recommend that four candidates be interviewed, Dr. Murphy, the committee chair, resigned. Murphy felt that affirmative action required a woman to be hired, since it appeared that the female applicants were qualified, and that the department would be playing games by having male candidates come for interviews. Px. 1r; Knutson at 46-47. He eventually voted for Peterson. Other members of the department reacted with hostility and anger to the idea that they would not have any choice but to hire a woman. Kleiber at 23-25. Dr. Charles Boltuck and Dr. Lesar made statements to the effect of this means we'll be stuck with a woman. V.31.60; V.31.104-05. Both of these men eventually voted for Peterson. Boltuck asked that his name be removed from the selection proceedings (although he was not on the search committee) so that he would not be liable for reverse discrimination. Kleiber at 20-21. Then the faculty decided to suspend the search altogether and try to reorganize the department. The search process was promptly reinstituted, however, when the administration told the department that cancelling it might give rise to affirmative-action suits. Px. 1x, 1y. Gillett, the Acting Vice-President for Academic Affairs, met with the department and explained the meaning of affirmative action. Boltuck responded, Well, that means, then, that we won't get stuck with an inferior woman. V.24.150. 73 The search committee then recommended that four candidates, ranked in order of preference, be brought in for interviews: Joan Bean, Louis Aiken, Mary Craik, and Robert Riedel. Bean and Aiken withdrew their names, however, and Terrance Peterson and Neil Wylie, ranked fifth and sixth, were added to the list. Craik, the only female candidate, was then top-ranked among the finalists. Dx. 25 at 3. 74 All four candidates were brought in for interviews. While not all faculty members interviewed all candidates, each candidate's application materials were available for inspection. During the interviews, Boltuck asked Craik if she would sue if she were not selected. V.31.64. 75 The election was held on May 17, 1976. Under the procedure adopted by the department, after each ballot the name of the person receiving the least votes was to be dropped. The person who, at the end, had the greatest number of votes would be the department's nominee. On every ballot, Craik received the same 10 votes and Peterson received the same 7 votes. On the last ballot, all the votes for Wylie shifted to Peterson: 76 Ballot 1 Ballot 2 Ballot 3 -------- -------- -------- Craik 10 10 10 Peterson 7 7 13 Wylie 6 6 dropped Reidell 0 dropped dropped 77 Peterson became the department's nominee. 78 After the election, Craik complained to Dean Ames, the dean of the college in which the Psychology Department was located, and to President Graham and asked for an investigation. She told them about the voting pattern, the stuck with a woman statement, and about having been asked whether she would sue if not chosen. On May 28, 1976, Graham met with Ames, Gillett, Kitchen (the affirmative-action officer), and Robert Becker (Special Assistant to the President) to discuss the appointment. They discussed the information Craik had relayed, and, relying on the recommendations of his advisors, Graham approved Peterson as the new department chair. 79 No investigation of Craik's charges was held prior to Peterson's selection. The officials did not contact Knutson, who was in charge of preparing the affirmative-action report, to determine what his views were; they did not attempt to discover who had made the stuck with a woman statement; and they did not ask the union for an extension of time in which to look further into the situation and to receive the affirmative-action report. Knutson finally filed the report about two weeks later, and it stated: 80 [T]he majority of the search committee does not feel that the action of the department and the administration in this matter is in compliance with affirmative action policies or law ... [W]e hope that it will be reconsidered. Dx. 25b at 4. 19 81 The magistrate held, however, that the defendants had articulated legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons for Peterson's selection, and that the plaintiffs had failed to prove that those reasons were pretextual. He found that the department was deeply divided into factions based on academic interest groups and that members of certain groups voted for Peterson because they believed his interests to be similar to theirs or because he was from outside the department. The magistrate found further that many members of the department were impressed by Peterson's qualifications. Finally, he found that President Graham, when he approved Peterson's selection, had virtually no evidence to suggest that the vote might have been tainted by sex discrimination. 82 We believe that this finding was clearly erroneous. While no one factor is determinative, the cumulative effect of the evidence compels this conclusion. For example, there was evidence that a number of the men involved in the selection process were hostile to the idea of a woman's being the department chairperson. Boltuck's and Lesar's statements about being stuck with a woman suggest such an attitude. This inference is strengthened by Boltuck's later remark, after Gillett had explained that affirmative action did not require choosing a woman without regard to her comparative qualifications, that the department would not get stuck with an inferior woman, as well as his inquiry as to whether Craik would sue if not selected. 83 The plaintiffs presented other evidence indicating that discriminatory attitudes were pervasive in the department. For example, Mason, a man who voted against Craik, while interviewing a prospective graduate student, told her that women like her made good para-professionals and that she probably did not need a graduate degree. V.12.57-58. Lesar told Knutson that he had trouble working with Mary Dwyer because she reminded him of a prison matron. V.31.100-01. In 1970, Passini, then chairperson of the Psychology Department, assigned Craik to teach statistics and then revoked the assignment, telling her that men on the faculty had objected to her teaching the course. V.1.47-51. Although we do not know exactly why these objections were made, it is reasonable to infer that they were based on the stereotyped view that women are not good at mathematics. 20 There was also evidence that when women spoke in faculty meetings, some of the faculty, especially Murphy and Nunes, would snicker at their suggestions. V.9.83-84. 84 The plaintiffs also presented evidence indicating that certain male members of the department resented Craik's assertiveness and feminist viewpoints. Kleiber, for instance, did not vote for Craik because he felt that there were communication barriers, stemming largely from sexist attitudes, between Craik and other members of the department. Pdx. 6; Kleiber at 11. He perceived a pervasive atmosphere of resistance to Craik, which he thought might result from her being an assertive woman, including her assertiveness on issues relating to women's rights. Kleiber at 14-15. Knutson substantially agreed with this assessment. He said that some men in the department often made remarks which, Knutson believed, indicated that they were threatened by Craik because they believed that she had a lot of power which she and other feminists would use against them. Knutson at 31-36. 85 Finally, we are struck by the administration's failure to investigate Craik's charges before confirming Peterson as the new department chair. The voting pattern alone is highly suggestive; there is a 1.6 per cent. probability that the shift of all of Wylie's votes to Peterson was due to chance (one-half to the sixth power). In light of the furor in the department about affirmative action and its requirements, bias against women is the most plausible explanation. Under these circumstances, given the information that Graham, Ames, Gillett, and Kitchen possessed, the administration had ample cause to suspect that sex discrimination influenced the election. Considered in light of the evidence outlined above, the evidence of the defendants' general lack of commitment to affirmative action, see Part II., supra, and our conclusion that the defendants discriminated against women as a class with regard to chair positions, see Part III.A, supra, these officials' complete failure to take any steps to investigate Craik's charges, or even to ascertain the contents of the affirmative-action report which Knutson was to file, persuades us that Craik was the victim of illegal discrimination.