Tagatz v. Marquette University

681 F. Supp. 1344, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1691, 46 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 293, 1988 WL 16575
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Wisconsin
DecidedFebruary 29, 1988
Docket82-C-812
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 681 F. Supp. 1344 (Tagatz v. Marquette University) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tagatz v. Marquette University, 681 F. Supp. 1344, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1691, 46 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 293, 1988 WL 16575 (E.D. Wis. 1988).

Opinion

DECISION

WARREN, Chief Judge.

This discrimination action was filed on July 2, 1982. This case has almost become tenured in the Court. Plaintiff, Glenn E. Tagatz is a professor for defendant, Marquette University, and alleges that Marquette unlawfully discriminated against him in the following areas:

1. Between 1975 to 1985, Marquette discriminated on the basis of religion in the setting of salaries,
2. Between 1976 and 1981, Marquette discriminated on the basis of age in the setting of salaries,
3. Marquette discriminated on the basis of providing fringe benefits to Jesuits,
4. Marquette discriminated on the basis of age and sex in the scheduling of sabbaticals, and
5. Marquette’s requirement that professors teach Catholicism is an unlawful condition of employment.

Tagatz also alleged that Marquette discriminated on the basis of religion when it filled the position of dean for the School of Education because it limited its search to Jesuits. This Court granted summary judgment to Marquette University on the position of dean issue because Marquette was entitled to discriminate on the basis of religion when filling the position for dean. A trial to the Court was held on the five remaining issues and after hearing and carefully considering the testimony adduced at trial, examining with care the exhibits, and after applying the relevant statutory and judicial authority, and Court hereby renders its findings of fact and conclusions of law.

I. FINDINGS OF FACT

Plaintiff, Dr. Glenn Tagatz, a male, Episcopalian by religion, and born 1-27-34, received a Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1963. Plaintiff was hired as an associate professor in the School of Education by defendant Marquette University in 1968. He received tenure in 1970, was promoted to full professor in 1981, and served as a department chairman from 1971 to 1974.

Plaintiff is an expert in statistics and measurement. He has served as a consultant numerous times and as an expert witness in discrimination lawsuits. He has taught measurement and statistics courses.

Plaintiff is also an expert in the analysis of the validity of merit systems used for hiring, licensure and other employment decisions for purposes of compliance for Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Many of plaintiff’s consultancies involved the use of his expertise in this area including a number of consultancies with state governments.

Defendant Marquette University, is an institution of higher education, constituted under the laws of the State of Wisconsin, located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

On June 1, 1971, the plaintiff was appointed Chairman of the Department of Psychology in the School of Education.

On July 15, 1974, the plaintiff was removed from this Chairmanship by Dr. Edward D. Simmons, Vice President for Aca *1347 demic Affairs, because of tension within the School.

A. Statistics

1. Religion

Plaintiff's case consisted primarily of statistical evidence compiled by the plaintiff himself. Tagatz found that by rank, the Catholics as a group received greater average yearly raises than non-Catholics for 1975 to 1985. The distribution by rank was statistically significant because the probability that the ranking would place Catholics versus non-Catholics on this distribution simply by chance (that is, without the factor of Catholicity making a difference) is less than one in one-hundred.

Tagatz also found that using the statistical technique of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) there is a statistically significant difference between the yearly average salary increases awarded to Catholics versus non-Catholics such that the probability of this variance occurring by chance is less than .0048.

Tagatz then took the salaries of five Catholic and five non-Catholic professors who have been continuous employees since 1969 and developed the following graph demonstrating the average salary of each group for each year:

[[Image here]]

The following graph was developed demonstrating the differences between the five Catholics’ average salaries who have been continuous employees since 1969 and the five non-Catholics’ average salaries who have been continuous employees since 1969:

*1348 [[Image here]]

2. Age

Regarding the claim of age discrimination, Tagatz found that there is a statistically significant difference in the average salaries awarded to faculty over forty versus those under forty such that the probability of this variance occurring by chance is less than .05.

Applying a Chi-Square analysis of a ranking of professors by average percentage of salary increase for 1976 to 1981 shows that there is a statistically significant difference in the percentages between those over forty versus those under forty because the probability of these percentages occurring by chance is less than .05. The following graph demonstrates the year-by-year differences in the average salaries between the age groups:

*1349 [[Image here]]

By use of ANOVA or Chi-Square, Ta-gatz found a statistically significant difference in the average percentage of salary increases awarded to those under forty versus those over forty for 1977 to 1981.

3. Conclusions

Based upon the above analyses, Tagatz concluded that a faculty member’s status as a Catholic versus being a non-Catholic was a factor in the setting of salaries during 1975 to 1985. Likewise, Tagatz also concluded that being under forty versus being over forty was a factor in the setting of salaries for those persons in the Marquette University School of Education faculty during 1976 to 1981.

B. Other Evidence

Dr. Nordberg, a Catholic, served as Dean of the School of Education from 1975 to 1981, and as such was principally responsible for setting salaries which were subject then to review and occasional change by the academic vice-president, Dr. Simmons. Dr. Nordberg was succeeded as dean by Father Hennessey, a Jesuit priest, also a Catholic, who served in this post ¡in 1981 to 1986.

During a faculty meeting in September of 1979, Dean Nordberg told faculty members that when he had set salaries for academic year 1979-80 he had given greater increases to junior in rank faculty members because of their greater productivity.

Dr. Ivanoff testified that Dr. Nordberg had favored younger faculty members in committee assignments as well during this time period.

Dr. Nordberg made a statement to Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
681 F. Supp. 1344, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1691, 46 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 293, 1988 WL 16575, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tagatz-v-marquette-university-wied-1988.