Equal Employment Opportunity Com'n v. Tufts Inst. of Learning, Civ. A. No. 73-2492-M.

• Decision Date: 28 July 1975
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 73-2492-M.
• Parties: EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Plaintiff, Barbara Ehrlich White, Plaintiff-Intervenor, and Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier, Plaintiff-Intervenor, v. TUFTS INSTITUTION OF LEARNING, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

421 F. Supp. 152

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Plaintiff, Barbara Ehrlich White, Plaintiff-Intervenor, and Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier, Plaintiff-Intervenor, v. TUFTS INSTITUTION OF LEARNING, Defendant.

Civ. A. No. 73-2492-M.

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts.

July 3, 1975.

As Modified July 28, 1975.

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Frank J. Tuk and Theodore Ravas, EEOC, Philadelphia, Pa., for EEOC.

Nancy Gertner, Boston, Mass., for intervenor White.

Jeanne Baker, Cambridge, Mass., for intervenor Joost-Gaugier.

Robert Glass, Nutter, McLennen & Fish, Boston, Mass., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM

FRANK J. MURRAY, District Judge.

This is an action by Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against Tufts Institution of Learning (Tufts),¹ for relief from alleged discriminatory employment practices based upon sex in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 78 Stat. 253, as amended by Pub.L. No. 92-261, 86 Stat. 103 (March 24, 1972), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.² EEOC seeks relief against Tufts to redress alleged discriminatory acts involving the discharges of Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier (Joost) and Barbara E. White (White), former employees of Tufts and teachers in the Fine Arts Department (sometimes referred to herein as Department), and other relief concerning employment practices and policies of Tufts.

Joost and White were permitted to intervene as plaintiffs, alleging Tufts had engaged in discriminatory employment practices against them, and each seeks injunctive relief to be reinstated in her employment with Tufts, and damages.

The case came on to be heard on the application of the plaintiffs for preliminary injunctive relief. Each party offered the testimony of witnesses and substantial documentary evidence.

I

EEOC is a commission created under 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-4, and empowered under section 2000e-5 "to prevent any person from engaging in any unlawful employment practice as set forth in section 2000e-2. . . ." EEOC is authorized to bring a civil action in this court under section 2000e-5(f)(1), and to apply for injunctive relief under section 2000e-5(f)(2), following the filing of a charge with EEOC on behalf of a person claiming to be aggrieved alleging that an employer has engaged in an unlawful employment practice.³

Joost is a female residing in Newton, Massachusetts. She was graduated from Radcliffe College with a B.A. Degree in 1955, and in 1959 received her M.A. Degree from Radcliffe and Harvard University. She was first employed by Tufts as a part-time Lecturer in 1967 in the Fine Arts Department, and served in that position for two years; and during that period she was also part-time Lecturer at Newton College of the Sacred Heart. In 1969 she was employed full time by Tufts in the Department with the rank of Assistant Professor. Her teaching experience began at Michigan State University where she was employed full time in 1961-62 as a teacher of fine arts and art history. Tufts notified her on August 21, 1972 that her contract of employment would not be renewed at the expiration of the 1972-73 academic year.

White is a female residing in Lexington, Massachusetts. She received her A.B. Degree from Smith College in 1958, a M.A. Degree from Columbia University in 1960, and her Ph.D. in art history from Columbia in 1965. She was first employed by Tufts in 1965 with the rank of Lecturer teaching art history, and employed as Assistant Professor in the Department during the academic years beginning September 1966 to August 1973. In January 1972 White was informed that the tenure committee had decided not to recommend her for promotion to the rank of Associate Professor and for tenure. She was notified by Tufts on May 4, 1972 that her contract of employment would not be renewed at the expiration of the 1972-73 academic year.

Tufts is a private, non-profit, educational institution of higher learning situated in Medford, Massachusetts. The chief administrative officer is its president, Burton Hallowell. The academic functions of Tufts are immediately supervised and directed by its Provost (Katherine McCarthy, formerly Dean of the Graduate School, appointed Provost June 15, 1973) and the Deans of the four principal schools of the University.⁴ The chain of academic authority to the Fine Arts Department descends from the President to the Provost to the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (Bernard Harleston from September 1970) to the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts (Dean Mumford).

Ivan Galantic (Galantic) was employed as a tenured member of the Fine Arts Department in January 1971 with the rank of Associate Professor, and named Chairman of the Department. He is the first tenured member of the Department. Throughout the events involved in this proceeding Galantic was the only tenured faculty member in the Department. He served as Chairman until July 9, 1972, when he was forced to step down from that position by Dean Harleston, but he remained as Associate Professor. When Galantic was hired, he, Joost and White comprised the full-time members of the Department.

II

In seeking injunctive relief against Tufts to reinstate Joost and White, plaintiff and intervenors have raised and sought to substantiate by testimony and documentary evidence the following claims:

(a) That Joost was discriminated against by Tufts based on her sex (1) in the compensation paid her as salary, in that larger salaries were paid men in the Department, and paid men holding the rank of Assistant Professor in the University; (2) in other terms and conditions of her employment, in that (i) she was denied secretarial help that men in the Department received, (ii) she was not consulted by Galantic on dispensation of scholarships or graduate admissions of students to the Department or on the Department's Masters program, (iii) Galantic held no meetings of the faculty, (iv) she was subjected to a working environment heavily polluted with sex bias; (3) in that she was harassed and intimidated; and (4) in that she was discharged in retaliation for her public opposition to the discriminatory conditions of her employment.

(b) That White was discriminated against by Tufts based on her sex (1) in the compensation paid her as salary, in that she was treated differently from men in the Department and elsewhere in the University; (2) in other terms and conditions of her employment, in that (i) Galantic treated her differently from men in the assignments of Department duties and privileges, and concerning dispensation of scholarships and graduate admissions to the Department, (ii) Galantic refused to order additional Renoir slides for White's seminar in 1971, refused to assign a student helper to White's courses, attempted to obstruct White's efforts to schedule a lecture by a noted French scholar, (iii) Galantic bullied and belittled her, (iv) Galantic held no meetings of the faculty, (v) she was denied secretarial help that men in the Department received; and (3) in the denial of tenure and promotion to the rank of Associate Professor.

III

A preliminary injunction will issue only upon a demonstration that the plaintiff will probably prevail on the merits of the complaint and that, absent the preliminary injunctive relief, the plaintiff will suffer irreparable injury. Automatic Radio Mfg. Co. v. Ford Motor Co., 390 F.2d 113 (1st Cir. 1968), cert. denied, 391 U.S. 914, 88 S.Ct. 1807, 20 L.Ed.2d 653 (1968).

In considering the propriety of preliminary injunctive relief in a case charging employment discrimination on the grounds of sex, the court's attention must be initially directed toward the underlying purposes of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, as amended. It is important to note at the outset what was said in Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424, 91 S.Ct. 849, 28 L.Ed.2d 158 (1971):

Congress did not intend by Title VII . . . to guarantee a job to every person regardless of qualifications. In short, the Act does not command that any person be hired simply because he was formerly the subject of discrimination, or because he is a member of a minority group. Discriminatory preference for any group, minority or majority, is precisely and only what Congress has proscribed. What is required by Congress is the removal of artificial, arbitrary, and unnecessary barriers to employment when the barriers operate invidiously to discriminate on the basis of racial or other impermissible classification.

Id. at 430-31, 91 S.Ct. at 853. Until March 24, 1972, Title VII exempted educational institutions with respect to teachers, but the exemption was lifted by Pub.L. No. 92-261, § 3, which amended 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-1. The amended Act is prospective in application and provides no remedy for a person merely because he was formerly the subject of discrimination. But the Act should be construed to apply to discriminatory discharges taking place after the amendment became effective though the decisions concerning the discharges were made before March 24, 1972.

In the legislative history of the amendment it is stated in H.R. No. 92-238 that when women "have been hired into educational institutions, particularly in institutions of higher education, they have been relegated to positions of lesser standing than their male counterparts. In a study . . . it was found that the primary factors determining the hiring of male faculty members were prestige and compatibility, but that women were generally considered to be outside of the prestige system altogether". (Footnote omitted.) U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News, p. 2155 (1972). As amended, the Act clearly proscribes discriminatory preference on the basis of sex in institutions of higher learning in their hiring, compensation, promotion and termination practices with respect to faculty members. Thus the plain intendment of the Act is that if an employment practice which operates to exclude women faculty members from promotion cannot be...