Jew v. University of Iowa, Civ. No. 86-169-D-2.

• Decision Date: 28 August 1990
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 86-169-D-2.
• Parties: Jean Y. JEW, M.D., Plaintiff, v. The UNIVERSITY OF IOWA and the Board of Regents of the University of Iowa, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Iowa

749 F. Supp. 946

Jean Y. JEW, M.D., Plaintiff, v. The UNIVERSITY OF IOWA and the Board of Regents of the University of Iowa, Defendants.

Civ. No. 86-169-D-2.

United States District Court, S.D. Iowa, Davenport Division.

August 28, 1990.

Carolyn Chalmers and Robert Zeglovitch, Leonard, Street and Deinard, Minneapolis, Minn., for plaintiff.

Gordon E. Allen, Scott M. Galenbeck, Dean A. Lerner, Asst. Iowa Attys. Gen., Des Moines, Iowa, for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION, FINDINGS OF FACT, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW, AND ORDER FOR JUDGMENT

VIETOR, Chief Judge.

Bench trial of this case was conducted for 12 days in November of 1989 and 2 days in April and May of 1990. Plaintiff, a tenured associate professor in the College of Medicine's department of anatomy, University of Iowa, asserts a sex discrimination in employment claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended.¹ Plaintiff contends that sexual discrimination against her, in large measure manifested by, and resulting from, false rumors that she gained favor with her department head by engaging in a sexual relationship with him, resulted in a hostile work environment and denial of promotion to full professor. Plaintiff also contends that the University retaliated against her for pursuing her sex discrimination claims.

FINDINGS OF FACT

(1) Plaintiff Jean Y. Jew, a medical doctor, is a tenured associate professor in the Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine, at defendant University of Iowa in Iowa City. She is a single woman of Chinese descent.² Dr. Jew received her B.S. degree from Newcomb College in 1969 and her M.D. degree from Tulane University in 1973. She accepted a non-faculty appointment as a post-graduate associate at the defendant University of Iowa (hereinafter "University") in the College of Medicine's Department of Anatomy (hereinafter "Department") in 1973, at the age of 24. Dr. Jew received a faculty appointment as an Assistant Professor in 1974. She was granted tenure and promoted to Associate Professor in 1979.

(2) The defendant Board of Regents is an agency of Iowa government created by Iowa Code chapter 262 (1989). It governs the University. Iowa Code § 262.7(1) (1989).

(3) The University has a decentralized administration with a large measure of authority exercised at the collegiate and department level.

(4) The University's College of Medicine (hereinafter "College") has 21 academic departments with five to six hundred faculty members or people with instructional titles. The College employs approximately 2,000 people. There are about 700 medical students in the College and about 600 residents or interns in training at the University Hospitals. Also, hundreds of graduate and undergraduate students from outside the College take courses in the College.

(5) The 21 academic departments in the College have department heads who are responsible for their department's faculty, students and staff. Department heads function as agents of and report to the Dean of the College. The Dean's responsibility for the faculty is exercised through the department heads. Department heads are responsible for seeing that the College's academic mission is fulfilled and the finances of the Department are properly administered. Department heads have control over the departmental budget, salaries, space, equipment, faculty recruiting, staff, etc.

(6) The Anatomy Department is one of the "basic science" departments in the College. Faculty of the Department are expected to spend a substantial portion of their time in research.

(7) The present Head of the Department is Dr. Joe C. Coulter. Dr. Coulter took over this position in March 1985 from Associate Dean of the Medical School Dr. Rex Montgomery, who served as Acting Head from the summer of 1983 until March 1985. Dr. Terence Williams came to the University of Iowa to head the Department in 1973 and continued as Head until the summer of 1983.

(8) The Head of the Department reports to the Dean of the College, Dr. John W. Eckstein. Dean Eckstein has been Dean of the College during the entire period of Dr. Jew's employment. Dean Eckstein reports to the University's Vice President for Academic Affairs. Dr. Richard D. Remington filled the Vice President position from 1982 to 1988. His predecessor was May Brodbeck.

(9) Dr. Williams was recruited to head the Department from Tulane University, where he was full professor in that university's Department of Anatomy. While he was at Tulane, Dr. Jew was a medical student there. She did considerable research work under Dr. Williams' supervision in his laboratory, and her work won her prizes and a scholarship. She learned the technique of electromicroscopy from Dr. Williams.

(10) Prior to Dr. Williams' appointment in 1973, the Department was split into factions and morale was poor. As it turned out, his appointment did nothing to improve the situation. Drs. Nicholas Halmi, Robert Tomanek and William Kaelber were faculty members in the Department when Dr. Williams began as Head. Their relationship with Dr. Williams was never smooth or cooperative. Dr. Williams had good relations with faculty members that he brought with him to the Department from Tulane — Drs. Ronald Bergman, Paul Heidger and Jew. Dr. Williams projected an image to many that he expected their "loyalty" — that they would get ahead only if they voted his way on departmental matters. Dean Eckstein, in his testimony, characterized the situation in the Department under Dr. Williams as follows:

Well, the biggest complaint was that "Dr. Williams is trying to get rid of me. He's trying to force me out because I won't vote the way he wants. I'm not going to join his team." This was the big thrust, and people were very concerned about what was going to happen to them if they disagreed with Williams.

You see, dissent was not allowed.

Questioning was not allowed, you know, and that's the essence of a university. You're supposed to be able to have an environment in which you could talk about things and disagree and generate new ideas, and that didn't happen in that department.

It was a department that was just paralyzed. People were — didn't know what to do next. They didn't know what their futures held for them. It was stifling. They were worried. They didn't understand all of this stuff and all the, you know, meaning of what was happening to them. It was rather personal; but to me, in looking at it at the time of this review and the beginning of it, it was a terrible place. It was a terrible place to be in a university where that kind of thing was going on.

(11) Throughout her employment at the University of Iowa, Dr. Jew has worked closely with Dr. Williams as a research collaborator. They have co-authored numerous scientific publications and continue to collaborate as research scientists. (Dr. Jew has also collaborated with other female and male scientists.)

(12) The professional relationship between Dr. Jew and Dr. Williams has been close for many years. A good social friendship also developed between Dr. Jew and Dr. Williams and his wife, Dr. Glenys Williams, who is a full professor in the College of Medicine's Department of Family Practice. There has never been a romantic or sexual relationship between Dr. Jew and Dr. Williams.

(13) Not long after Dr. Jew came to the Department, communications began to circulate suggesting a sexual relationship between her and Dr. Williams by which she had gained favorable treatment within the Department, and otherwise denigrating Dr. Jew.

(14) Cartoons and pictures were posted on the door and wall outside Dr. Halmi's laboratory at various times between 1973 and 1980. These cartoons were sexually suggestive. Handwriting on them referred to Dr. Jew and sometimes Dr. Williams. Dr. Halmi was among the most senior of the Department's faculty and had held administrative responsibilities in the Department prior to 1973. Because of his position, faculty members and students in the Department frequently came to Dr. Halmi's office and passed the posted cartoons. Testimony established that these cartoons appeared throughout the period 1973 through 1980, and remained posted for days at a time. Dr. Jew saw some of these when they were posted, and was embarrassed and ashamed.

(15) Dr. Tomanek, a faculty member at the time Dr. Williams assumed the headship, initiated a pattern of sexually denigrating speech about Dr. Jew as early as 1973. From 1973 to 1986, Dr. Tomanek repeatedly initiated discussions with Department faculty and staff in which he speculated about, or stated that there was, a sexual relationship between Dr. Jew and Dr. Williams. Among other sexually-related inquiries and statements, he told faculty, graduate students and staff members of the Department, sometimes in locker room language, that Dr. Jew had been observed having sexual intercourse with Dr. Williams in Williams' office, that she was a "slut," that she and Dr. Williams were having an affair, that they had been seen coming out of a motel together, and that Dr. Jew had received preferential treatment based on a sexual relationship with Dr. Williams.³

(16) In January of 1979, Dr. Kaelber, in a drunken outburst, yelled sexual epithets at Dr. Jew as she walked down a hall in the Department, calling her a "slut," "bitch," and "whore." In the fall of 1983, Dr. Kaelber again referred to Dr. Jew as a "whore." He made this statement to another full professor, Dr. Bergman, shortly before the full professors, including Dr. Kaelber and Dr. Bergman, were to evaluate Dr. Jew for promotion to full professor. Dr. Kaelber was not intoxicated on that occasion.

(17) Sometime after 1980, Dr. Jerry Maynard told people in the Department a "joke," which is best described by Dr. Maynard's own testimony about it:

Q. Dr. Maynard, there's been testimony in this trial that you referred to Dr. Jew as a chink in front of other individuals. Did you do this?

A. No, I did not. I have been accused of that, and I will

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