Phelps v. Washburn University of Topeka, Civ. A. No. 83-4198

• Citation: 634 F. Supp. 556
• Decision Date: 10 February 1986
• Docket Number: 83-4259.,Civ. A. No. 83-4198
• Parties: Katherine PHELPS, et al., Plaintiffs, v. WASHBURN UNIVERSITY OF TOPEKA, et al., Defendants. Timothy PHELPS, Plaintiff, v. WASHBURN UNIVERSITY OF TOPEKA; John Green; Carl Monk; Bill Rich; and Carol Vogel, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Kansas

634 F. Supp. 556

Katherine PHELPS, et al., Plaintiffs, v. WASHBURN UNIVERSITY OF TOPEKA, et al., Defendants.

Timothy PHELPS, Plaintiff, v. WASHBURN UNIVERSITY OF TOPEKA; John Green; Carl Monk; Bill Rich; and Carol Vogel, Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 83-4198, 83-4259.

United States District Court, D. Kansas.

February 10, 1986.

Fred W. Phelps, Sr., Phelps-Chtd., Fred W. Phelps, Jr., Topeka, Kan., for plaintiffs.

Richard H. Seaton, Joseph A. Knopp, Everett, Seaton, Knopp & Thompson, Manhattan, Kan., Arthur E. Palmer, Marla J. Luckert, Goodell, Stratton, Edmonds, Palmer & Wright, Topeka, Kan., for defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

THEIS, District Judge.

This matter is presently before the Court on defendants' motion for summary judgment. In Case No. 83-4198, Katherine R. Phelps, Rebekah A. Phelps and Timothy B. Phelps allege they were denied admission to the Washburn University School of Law, in violation of 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983, 1985 and 2000d, and the first and fourteenth amendments. Specifically, the Phelps claim that the defendants discriminated against them in retaliation for plaintiffs' association with the cause of blacks, plaintiffs' association with the law firm of Phelps-Chartered and plaintiffs' association with their father, Fred W. Phelps, Sr. In Case No. 83-4259, Timothy Phelps alleges the same statutory and constitutional violations. He contends that he was retaliated against for filing the previous suit by not being admitted to Washburn Law School's Fall 1983 class from the waiting list.

The Court is familiar with the standards governing consideration of a motion for summary judgment. Summary judgment may be granted only if "there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and ... the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). The Court must look at the record in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. Lindley v. Amoco Production Co., 639 F.2d 671, 672 (10th Cir.1981); Prochaska v. Marcoux, 632 F.2d 848, 850 (10th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 451 U.S. 984, 101 S.Ct. 2316, 68 L.Ed.2d 841 (1981). Furthermore, before summary judgment may be granted, the moving party must establish its entitlement to summary judgment beyond a reasonable doubt. Ellis v. El Paso Natural Gas Co., 754 F.2d 884, 885 (10th Cir.1985). Summary judgment should not be granted if circumstantial evidence or factual inferences tend to establish genuine issues for trial. Barber v. General Electric Co., 648 F.2d 1272, 1278 (10th Cir.1981). While summary judgment should be granted with particular caution in discrimination cases where questions of intent are involved, Raby v. General Electric Co., No. 81-1632 (D.Kan., unpublished, October 5, 1984), a party resisting a motion for summary judgment must do more than advance conclusory allegations; it must set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial. Dart Industries, Inc. v. Plunkett Co., 704 F.2d 496, 498 (10th Cir.1983).

In response to defendants' well-documented motion, the plaintiffs have submitted affidavits and exhibits attesting to "facts" which consist primarily of hearsay and conclusory allegations. In their voluminous submission, the plaintiffs have not controverted the following material facts.

The plaintiffs, Katherine, Rebekah and Timothy Phelps, are the natural children of Fred W. Phelps, Sr. The plaintiffs are white. All of the plaintiffs have worked for the law firm of Phelps-Chartered. Fred W. Phelps, Sr., and several of his children, Fred W. Phelps, Jr., Margie Phelps, Shirley Phelps-Roper, Jonathan B. Phelps, and Elizabeth Phelps, were admitted to, attended and were graduated from Washburn University School of Law. Timothy Phelps was admitted to and is now attending Washburn University School of Law. The individual defendants hold the following positions at the university and law school: John Green is the President of Washburn University; Carl Monk is the Dean of the Washburn University School of Law; Bill Rich is the Associate Dean of the law school and is Chairperson of the Admissions Committee of the Washburn School of Law; Carol Vogel is the Affirmative Action Director for the university.

The Washburn Law School's admissions process for 1983 operated as follows. Applicants for the Fall 1983 class were required to submit an application form, letters of reference and a report from the Law School Data Assembly Service (LSDAS). The LSDAS report contained the applicant's score on the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) and the applicant's undergraduate grade point average (UGPA), as calculated by the LSDAS from the student's college transcript according to a standardized method.

The authority to make decisions concerning admissions to the law school was delegated by the dean to the associate dean and the admissions committee. The dean exercised no veto power over the decisions of the committee. The admissions committee was composed of five faculty members selected by the dean of the law school and two students, who were selected by the President of the Student Bar Association. Associate Dean Rich, one of the five faculty members, chaired the committee.

Before considering any applications for the 1983 class, the admissions committee determined two initial cutoffs, which established three categories of admissions files. The UGPA and LSAT scores demarcated these initial cutoffs. The first category was comprised of applicants whose UGPA and LSAT scores were sufficiently high to qualify them for automatic admission, subject only to a review to determine that their applications were complete and that they had satisfied all legal prerequisites for admission to the law school. The second class of applicants consisted of those whose UGPA and LSAT scores were so low that the applicants would not ordinarily have been admitted. Nevertheless the associate dean reviewed these files to determine whether any factors other than the UGPA and LSAT indicated that the applicant should be considered further. The third category included applicants whose UGPA and LSAT scores fell between the cutoffs for the high and low groups.

Approximately forty percent of the files were placed in the first group of high UGPA and LSAT scores. Fifteen to twenty percent of the applications fell into the low category. The remaining approximately forty percent of the files were included in the third or middle category.

The applications falling into the middle category were reviewed by the admissions committee. The chairperson reviewed all of the files. The six remaining committee members were split into two groups, each with two faculty members and one student member. One group read all of the files of applicants whose last names began the letters A through K. The second group read the files of applicants whose last names began with the letters L through Z. Each committee member rated each file he or she read on a scale of 1 (low) to 5 (high).

After a file was read by the associate dean and half of the committee, it had a total of four ratings, which were added to produce a total committee score. Cutoffs were then established based on these committee scores. Applicants who received a rating above the cutoff were admitted. Applicants whose total committee scores were at or just below the cutoff were then reviewed by the other half of the committee. Thus, these applications were evaluated by all of the committee members.

Applications of applicants whose LSAT and UGPA scores placed them in the low group could have been moved up to the middle group and considered by the committee if the associate dean's review of the file identified some factor, such as minority status, warranting further consideration. The files of all minority applicants received a review by the entire committee.

When the committee members reviewed the files in the middle group, they could again consider the applicant's LSAT score and UGPA. In addition, committee members could have considered additional factors, including: graduate study; work experience; the personal autobiographical statement supplied by the applicant; the applicant's writing sample; minority status; leadership and community service experience; the applicant's undergraduate major or field of study (including grade inflation and difficulty of that field); the applicant's age or maturity; the applicant's sex; and the applicant's letters of reference. The admissions committee gave affirmative weight to minority status in rating applications.

Each committee member was given discretion in how to weight various factors and in how to score files. Some committee members took into consideration the fact that GPAs in some departments at Washburn are inflated. The defendants contend that there was no discussion among the committee members about any particular file prior to the time it was scored. While the plaintiffs assert that their files were discussed by the committee prior to scoring, the only evidence to which they point merely establishes that members of the committee had discussed the Phelps family at various times. No evidence is presented that Katherine, Rebekah or Timothy Phelps specifically were discussed. Furthermore, the plaintiffs present no evidence that their applications were ever discussed. In short, the record contains no evidence that the committee members did not evaluate the applications independently and without committee discussion.

In Rich's opinion, the experience of the law school has been that the LSAT score is one of the better indicators of whether a student will be able to perform at a minimally satisfactory level. Because of the correlation between low LSATs and law school failure and the lack of correlation between low GPAs and law school failure, individuals with high LSATs were likely to be admitted to law school regardless of their GPA and those with very low LSAT scores were unlikely to be admitted.

Washburn University sought a class size of 185 to 190 for the Fall...