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Support Committee for Graciela Chichilnisky

7926 Hill Point Road

Cross Plains, WI 53528

Phone: 608-798-3814

Thumbnail History of Chichilnisky vs. Columbia

August 2003

Professor Graciela Chichilniksy joined Columbia in 1977, where she is a tenured full Professor since 1980. Since 1995 she is the holder of the UNESCO Chair in Mathematics and Economics at Columbia University, as well as a tenured professor of Mathematical Statistics. Internationally renowned in her fields, Chichilniksy has two PhDs from the University of California at Berkeley, one in Mathematics and another in Economics, and has taught at Harvard, Stanford and other Universities. She has published extensively, and is also the director of Columbia's Program on Information and Resources (PIR) and its Center for Risk Management.

For more than 10 years, Professor Chichilnisky has struggled with Columbia to ensure equitable pay and treatment for its women faculty. Chichilnisky filed a complaint in 1991, a class action representing all women faculty at Columbia. She claimed inequity in pay and promotions based on gender. The complaint alleged that Columbia had violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Pay Act of 1963 by maintaining a policy of compensating and promoting female faculty significantly less than their male counterparts.

For two years, Columbia did not respond but instead sued Chichilnisky's lawyers for conflict of interest, challenging their ability to represent Chichilnisky. Two years later the Court found her lawyers free of conflict of interest and Columbia sought a settlement with Chichilnisky. The suit settled in 1995 on terms favorable to Chichilnisky, including $500,000 in damages, an increase in salary from about $60,000 to $110,000, and the acceptance by the University of an academic Chair created for Chichilnisky by the United Nations Educational and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Mathematics and Economics in recognition of her contributions to the international community. Columbia promised Chichilnisky an additional $50,000 per year for her activities in connection with the UNESCO Chair, and to provide the needed office space and support for her students, and

for visiting professors and staff of her research program PIR. Immediately after settling Chichilnisky's suit in February 1996, Columbia released a long-due report on salary equity and increased the salaries of four other female professors.

However, since 1995, many of the terms of the Settlement Agreement have either been unfulfilled or retracted by Columbia, and Chichilnisky met with increased hostility and retaliation. Despite commitments in the Settlement Agreement to provide Chichilnisky compensation for herself and resources for her program (PIR), the University froze more than $2 million in research funds that Chichilnisky had raised herself for PIR. This prevented her hiring Researchers inviting visitors, or taking students. They further tried to hire away or scare away support staff. Columbia also failed to pay the yearly compensation agreed to for the UNESCO Chair. In January 2000 Columbia announced their intention to ask UNESCO unilaterally to terminate the UNESCO Chair. Two months later in march 2000 Columbia dismantled PIR's computers and offices resulting in the loss of crucial records and Chichilnisky’s research.

Immediately following the destruction of the offices and her work, Chichilnisky obtained a temporary restraining order in New York State Supreme Court on March, 2000, which stopped the university from further destruction. Simultaneously she filed a second lawsuit alleging breach of the 1995 Settlement Agreement, retaliation and sex discrimination. Columbia sought once again to settle, and Chichilnisky agreed to mediation and engaged in a number of discussions with Columbia regarding enforcement of the 1995 Settlement Agreement. In 2002 the university provided Chichilnisky office space, equivalent to that destroyed, for PIR and in February 2003, the Provost reinstated her UNESCO Chair. However the University still has not released the more than $2 million in research funds that Chichilnisky had raised which had been frozen by the University, nor has the University agreed to pay her what she is due under the UNESCO Chair agreement, in the past or in the future.

In the Fall of 2002 and during discovery, Chichilnisky found a large discrepancy between her current salary and those of the male professors in her department. A more than 50% increase in her salary is needed for her salary to reach the average salary of male full professors. Accordingly, in January 2003, she amended her complaint to allege violation of the Equal Pay Act as well.

Columbia’s response in February 2003 was to fire their own attorney, who was discussing settlement and terminate unilaterally the settlement negotiations that were then almost complete, as well as to countersue Chichilnisky for the first time, and for issues unrelated to her law suit. These counterclaims concern the number of days Chichilnisky did consultancy worked outside the University to supplement her income, an activity that the University normally encourages faculty to do, and the number of courses Chichilnisky taught. However Columbia did not follow its own procedures for review and cure of the issues. More recently Columbia University explicitly admitted having no definition nor ground rules in place to ensure compliance with the so called "conflict of commitment" for which Columbia is counter suing Chichilnisky. Chichilnisky is asking the Court for a Summary Judgment to vacate these counterclaims as she cannot be responsible for lack of compliance with policies which the University itself admits it has not defined, and has no ground rules for implementing. She is also asking that sanctions be imposed on Columbia for suing her before their own internal procedures had been used, and for lack of compliance with non-existing policies.

As of July 2003, Chichilnisky's case against Columbia is in the final stages of discovery and is scheduled for trial in early 2004. Her request for Summary Judgment in the counter suits is scheduled for a Court appearance in front of Judge Omansky of the New York Supreme Court in September or October 2003.

The American Association of University Women voted in 2002 to adopt and support Chichilnisky's sex discrimination case against Columbia, because they view it as an important ‘glass ceiling’ precedent for all women in academia. As of June 2003, the Legal Advocacy Fund of the AAUW has awarded $38,000 in support of this case, with many members earmarking their donations to support it.