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Jury Awards $12.7 Million to Woman Denied Tenure
Compiled by Editorial Staff
A Hartford, Connecticut jury awarded $12.7 million to
former assistant professor of chemistry, Dr. Leslie E. Craine, who
was denied tenure at Trinity College. The jury of four women and
two men found the college guilty of sex discrimination and
awarded her $671,000 in lost wages, $2 million in damages, $4
million for emotional distress and $6 million in punitive damages.
Educators say this is the largest sum ever awarded in a tenure
case in the U.S.
Dr. Craine was hired in 1987 by a department that had
five tenured male professors, and received unanimous
recommendations during her three evaluations leading up to her
tenure bid. She had received a teaching award, and had earned
praise from her peers for her published work in developing a
method to determine the chemical properties of various alcohols.
But the college's tenure review committee rejected her bid for
tenure 4 to 1.
According to Mr. Felix Springer who represented Trinity
College, 'Mrs. Craine, while a fine teacher, did not do enough
scholarly or original research to merit tenure. And although the
department recommended her unanimously, it did so, in the opinion
of the committee, without the effusiveness typical of most tenure
worthy candidates. If you read between the lines, there was a lot of
lukewarm stuff at best,' Mr. Springer said.
'It's out of the ball park.' said Jordon E. Kurland, associate
general secretary of the American
Association of University
Professors, in Washington. The college is appealing the
verdict.
-wage@wage.org-