Opinion ID: 523563
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Use of Rank Variables

Text: 39 In conjunction with their attack on the district court's assessment of the sufficiency of plaintiffs' statistical evidence, appellants also challenge the district court's determination that rank was an appropriate factor to consider in assessing pay disparities between male and female faculty members. According to appellants, if the court had rejected the rank variables and considered only those salary studies which excluded rank, then the number of standard deviations associated with their findings of discrimination would have been much greater, and their statistical proof would have been even more probative. 40 Although we recognize that the use of rank variables in testing for salary discrimination against women faculty members is not universally accepted, see Finkelstein, The Judicial Reception of Multiple Regression Studies in Race and Sex Discrimination Cases, 80 Colum.L.Rev. 737, 741-42 (1980); D. Baldus & J. Cole, supra, Sec. 8.23, at 113-14 (Supp.1987), in Sobel v. Yeshiva University, this court specifically upheld the use of rank variables in a multiple regression analysis, stating that rank could be used as a legitimate factor in explaining pay disparities so long as rank itself was clearly not tainted by discrimination, 839 F.2d at 35. As the plaintiffs' statistical expert, Dr. Mary Gray, explained in her own report: In a bias-free system, one could use rank as a measure of productivity since the review process for promotion or hire should evaluate teaching, scholarship and service. (Emphasis added). See D. Baldus & J. Cole, supra, Sec. 8.2, at 114. The question to be resolved, then, in cases involving the use of academic rank factors, is whether rank is tainted by discrimination at the particular institution charged with violating Title VII. Although appellants reiterate on appeal their claim that rank at New Paltz was tainted, it is clear that the district judge accepted and considered evidence from the parties on both sides of this issue, and that she rejected the plaintiffs' contentions on this point. 41 At trial, the plaintiffs failed to adduce any significant statistical evidence of discrimination as to rank. As the district court stated in its opinion, the plaintiffs' studies of rank, rank at hire, and waiting time for promotion were mere compilations of data which neither accounted for important factors relevant to assignment of rank and promotion, nor demonstrated that observed differences were statistically significant. Ottaviani, 679 F.Supp. at 306. The defendants, on the other hand, offered persuasive objective evidence to demonstrate that there was no discrimination in either placement into initial rank or promotion at New Paltz between 1973 and 1984, and the district court chose to credit the defendants' evidence. Upon review of the record, we cannot state that the court's rulings in this regard were clearly erroneous. Accordingly, the district court's decision to focus primarily on those studies which included rank as an essential independent variable was not improper, and appellants' contentions to the contrary must be rejected. See Presseisen v. Swarthmore College, 442 F.Supp. 593, 614, 619 (E.D.Pa.1977) (inclusion of rank variable appropriate when evidence showed no discrimination with respect to hiring and promotion), aff'd mem., 582 F.2d 1275 (3d Cir.1978); see also EEOC v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 839 F.2d at 327 (court's decision to focus generally on those regression analyses which did not omit major factors was proper); Rossini v. Ogilvy & Mather, Inc., 798 F.2d 590, 603-04 (2d Cir.1986) (trial court's reliance on studies which incorporated controversial variables not clearly erroneous, where court's decision came after extensive testimony from experts on both sides of the issue).