The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 27, Ed. 1 Friday, April 22, 1988 Page: 1 of 20
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—K]
Volume 75,
WRESW?
Number 27
Rice's slightly tipsy newspaper
Friday, April 22, 1988
Chance charges university with discrimination
equal to that of men in the department
Chance's lawsuit claims Rice is in
violation of the Equal Pay Act and of
Title EX of the Education Amend-
ments of 1972. Her lawyer, David T.
Lopez, filed it in the federal court of
U.S. District Judge Gabrielle
McDonald
Both Chance and Grob declined to
specify the alleged incidences of har-
assment. Grob denies Chance's
charges, and says that both he and the
English department have strongly
supported affirmative action. Since
1973, he says, the department has
made nine tenure-track appoint-
by Lisa Gray
English Professor Jane Chance
filed a class-action lawsuit against
Rice University last Friday, alleging
that the university has discriminated
against women in pay and career
advancement.
She is also suing for punitive dam-
ages from English Professor Alan
Grob, chairman of the department
from winter semester 1981 through
spring semester 1986. The lawsuit
charges Grob with "insulting, de-
meaning and harassing" Chance "in
reprisal and retaliation for" her de-
mands for promotions and a salary
Faculty offer varied opinions on lawsuit
by Lisa Gray getting support from men that I didn't *— *i- r-v. .
A class-action lawsuit against Rice expect."
ments: six white women, one black
man and two white men. In 1968 Grob
founded a faculty group to recruit
black students. He has also been
honored by the Black Student Union.
He has not yet hired a lawyer.
As of Wednesday the university
had not been officially notified of the
lawsuit, according to the Office of
University Relations. University offi-
cials will not comment on the case
until they have had time to study the
charges.
As proof of a university problem
with sexual discrimination, Chance
points to the scarcity of women in
University filed by English Professor
Jane Chance has provoked intense
reactions from women faculty mem-
bers. Some faculty women back
Chance's suit strongly.
"I think it's great and it's been a
long time coming," said German
Professor Susan Clark. "I think Jane
has a tremendously valid case." Clark
points out that Chance, like many
other women hired during Rice's af-
firmative action push in the '70s, may
have faced a chillier reception by men
in her department than do women
hired in the '80s.
She also notes that women hired in
the '80s may become more discon-
tented as they stay longer at Rice,
since the salary gap between male and
female professors becomes more pro-
nounced in the senior ranks.
Many supporters of the lawsuit
may be afraid to state their opinions
publicly,Clark said. Chance concurs.
"I've been getting a lot of secret
phone calls and little notes," she said.
She adds that others have shown
their approval of her suit. "I've even
had old students call me. And I'm
Women in the English department,
however, say that they have not been
treated unfairly and praise Alan Grob,
former chairman of the department
and a defendant in the suit "The Eng-
lish department has been wonderful
to me," said Professor Meredith
Skura, the only female full professor
in the department other than Chance.
Skura said that she has not chaired
department committees because she
has not had time for them.
"All my male colleagues have been
extremely supportive of me," said
Assistant Professor Susan Wood, also
of the English department. "I'm not
saying that there aren't problems at
Rice—I know that there have been in
other situations—but my experience
at Rice has been very positive."
Wood said she does not believe that
the department discriminates in
awarding endowed chairs, pointing
out that die department's chosen can-
didate for the Moody endowed chair
is a woman. The woman was chosen
before Chance's lawsuit was an-
nounced.
"I feel very strongly that the allega-
tions against Alan Grob are unfair,"
Wood said. She called Grob "instru-
mental" in the development of the
Women's Studies program at Rice,
and said that as department chairman,
he had a good record of appointing
women and minorities.
Katherine Wallingford, a part-time
lecturer in English, also supports
Grob. "I'm angry at his being named
in the suit," she said. "If you were to
ask anyone in the English department,
'Who is the most attuned to the prob-
lems of minorities and women?', it
would be Alan Grob."
"As a human being who has been
around the English Department for a
long time, it grieves me to see his
name in the press as a foe of minorities
and worn en, "Wallingford said.
high administrative and academic
positions at Rice and the marked dif-
ference between the average salaries
of male and female faculty members.
The university has so far refused to
release figures on faculty salaries
broken down by division, but she
predicts a study by the Commission
on Women will show an obvious sal-
ary gap. According to an official
statement by the commission, the
study will be presented to President
George Rupp this summer. The study
is "in no way connected to any legal
action," the statement said.
Chance claims that she has been
underpaid. In spite of her impressive
academic record—which includes
editing three collected books, pub-
lishing three of her own, and receiv-
ing a Guggenheim fellowship—she
says her salary is below the Rice
average for a female full professor.
She adds that some of the men in the
English department and other depart-
ments who, like her, received tenure
in 1980, have gone on to receive
endowed chairs, although she has not.
She also says she has been discour-
aged from complaining, both by uni-
versity administrators and a former
chair of the English department. A
campus administrator, she says, has
given her a copy of the book Campus
Troublemakers. Shesays,"Two years
after I got here, when I was not put up
for promotion, the then-chair told me,
in what I think was an avuncular way,
'If you complain about this, this will
be the end of your career at Rice.' "
Chance also charges that a dispro-
portionate number of Rice's part-time
lecturers are female. Part-time lectur-
ers, she says, do not get merit in-
creases in their pay and have little job
security. No women have ever
chaired important English depart-
ment committees, Chance says. She
says she had sought to be appointed to
chair such committees.
Chance is critical the department's
method of awarding endowed chairs
because she feels she has not been
given an opportunity to present her
achievements to the department. She
cites one instance in which an en-
dowed chair to be filled internally was
chosen by polling members of the
department. "That turned it into a
popularity contest."
She says that the English depart-
ment has neglected her field, medi-
evalism, since she came to Rice, thus
hampering her professionally. "I'm
the only medievalist in a department
of 18 to 20 people," she says. "There
were two male medievalists here
when I was hired. No w I do the job of
both."
She feels that too much attention
has focused on her personality since
the lawsuit was announced. "Bring-
ing up the issue of discrimination is
like pressing rape charges. The issues
brought up are not being discussed. I
am being discussed."
Goel fired after writing article
Dunking the Putzke
Campus Police Officer and Alumnus Ivan Putzke falls after being dunked at the
Charity TG last week, hosted by Brown and Lovett. The event raised almost \
$200 for the Texas Children's Hospital. —L. Cowsar
by Michael Raphael
Central Kitchen Director Joyce
Rubash fired one of her student driv-
ers on Friday after he wrote a
Thresher column claiming that CK
serves ten-month-old "bad meat" and
pays excessive prices for it. Marion
Hicks, director of Food and Housing,
rehired the driver on Saturday and
responded to his criticisms this week,
insisting that the College Food Serv-
ice pays competitive prices for good
food.
"Joyce fired me for disloyalty and
insubordination," Lovett junior Gau-
rav Goel, the driver, said. "Mr. Hicks
apologized for her, and I started work-
ing again." Rubash declined com-
ment on the firing, saying it is a pri-
vate matter, but Hicks said Goel was
dismissed because of a communica-
tion problem. ,
"Mrs. Rubash was uptight because
he (Goel) reported non-reliable fig-
ures. She felt there was insubordina-
tion involved. I talked to her, and she
agreed we were hasty. . .although
there was quite a bit of insubordina-
tion, we don't want it said we're
trying to stop freedom of speech,"
Hicks said.
In his column, Goel wrote that the
fajita meat he delivered to some of the
colleges on April 5 "was pale green
and smelled rancid" and came from
boxes dated May 18,1987. Goel also
wrote that College Food Service paid
$3.90 per pound for the meat, a 35
percent discount from the suppliers'
regular price. Goel wrote that a repre-
sentative from the supplier, Sysco,
told him that the company never gives
more than a 6 percent discount on
meat unless it is substandard or old.
Finally, Goel wrote that he called
three other Houston food distributors,
all of which deliver fresh fajita meat
Afor less than $2 per pound.
Hicks confirmed the May date for
the fajita meat, but denies that it is a
problem. He said that Sysco made a
huge bulk purchase of the meat on that
date and has probably been delivering
it to campus ever since.
"Naturally, we don't like that
idea," Hicks said. "We jumped all
over Sysco for having meat that old,
and they sent a letter saying the meat
is OK." In a letter from Rubash to the
Thresher editor this week {see page
2), she says she was "shocked" to
leam how old the meat was, but she
subsequently received assurance
from Sysco that the 10-month-old
meat is comparable in quality to cur-
rent meat.
'To my knowledge nothing was
wrong with the meat served," Hicks
said, adding that if any of the meat
was bad it is possible that an individ-
ual box was handled wrong or ac-
cidently allowed to thaw at some
time.
Hicks produced guidelines from
the City of Houston which stipulate
that frozen beef may be stored for up
tQ twelve months before serving.
Central Kitchen has been within those
guidelines for the beef fajitas. The
same guidelines, however, allow only
eight to ten months for frozen cut-up
chicken, but the chicken fajitas which
CK served Tuesday again bore the
May 18,1987, packing date—eleven
months before they were served.
According to Hicks, the food serv-
ice hasn't made a strict limit on the
age of the meat they serve, but he
claims it is generally three to six
months old. However, Hicks believes
that the meat packed last May was
also served for several other fajita
dinners this, semester, such as on
March 8 and March 22. The food
service doesn't buy fresh meat be-
cause it is motfe expensive since it
involves more labor to prepare, Hicks
said.
Hicks said Goel's price allegations
are misguided. "We purchase com-
petitively from Sysc^," he said. "We
try to purchase the best possible prod-
uct at the best possible price." Though
the food service buys a large volume
of food from Sysco, it buys from
another supplier when the price is
better, Hicks said, citing fresh pro-
duce as an example.
He said that Sysco has a special
relationship with the College Food
Service that enables them to get prod-
ucts at prices lower than those for
Sysco's less regular customers. The
food service buys from Sysco on a
"cost plus" basis, meaning that Rice
see Hicks, page 6
INSIDE:
Opinion: Letter from Joyce,
page 2.
News: Willy's statue moves
again, page 6.
Fine Arts Feature: Annual
Sammy awards, page 12.
Sports: Sports awards an-
nounced, page 16.
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Wucker, Michele. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 27, Ed. 1 Friday, April 22, 1988, newspaper, April 22, 1988; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245694/m1/1/: accessed June 13, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.