NEW YORK
The 15-year sexual discrimination dispute between Columbia University and a professor who claims the institution underpays women is expected to head toward trial later this year. Likewise, the school’s lawsuit against the professor for abdicating her duties is proceeding.
“My demand is simple … to be treated as other male professors and get equal pay,” says Dr. Graciela Chichilnisky. She has an endowed position as the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Professor of Mathematics and Economics. Tenured at Columbia since 1980, Chichilnisky, says her case is proof that the glass ceiling exists for women.
“Columbia is hoping to extend the litigation process but I won’t give up … I will be giving my deposition this week,” says the Argentine-born professor. “I feel a responsibility to my female colleagues, students and daughter in a male-dominated field.”
Chichilnisky says her troubles began in 1991 after she filed a lawsuit against the school, alleging salary discrepancies. The university settled in 1995 by awarding the professor $500,000 in damages and more than doubling her salary, from $57,000 to $107,000. Chichilnisky was also promised an annual $50,000 grant for support and development of a research center.
However, the university went back on the agreement and had frozen the annual grant by 1998. “The straw on the camel’s back was when a crew of movers came and dismantled and damaged years of research at the center,” she says.
She filed a second lawsuit in March 2000 in state court. Columbia countersued in 2003.
In court documents, the school accuses the professor of not fulfilling her duties and violating university policy by serving as chairman and chief executive of another company, Cross Border Exchange. The brief also alleges that she continued to serve secretly as the company’s CEO after telling university officials, who had expressed concern about her outside business ventures, that she had resigned from the job in October 2001.
