Tolliver v. Yeargan

567 F. Supp. 116, 39 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1170, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16503
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Arkansas
DecidedJune 2, 1983
Docket82-5007
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 567 F. Supp. 116 (Tolliver v. Yeargan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tolliver v. Yeargan, 567 F. Supp. 116, 39 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1170, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16503 (W.D. Ark. 1983).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

H. FRANKLIN WATERS, District Judge.

This action was filed by Plaintiff, Dr. Charles L. Tolliver, against the University *118 of Arkansas and various faculty and administrative personnel, specifically Dr. J.R. Yeargan, Dr. James E. Halligan, Dr. Charles Oxford and Dr. James E. Martin, alleging violations of 42 U.S.C. §.§ 1983, 2000e and the Fourteenth Amendment. Specifically, Plaintiff alleges that conditions and terms of his employment and compensation were discriminatory.

Jurisdiction of this Court is invoked and established pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1343, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983, 2000e et seq. Venue is proper in this district and division.

The following shall constitute the Court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law pursuant to Rule 52, F.R.C.P.

I. Findings of Fact

Plaintiff, Dr. Charles L. Tolliver, is currently a tenured Associate Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department of the College of Engineering of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville campus.

After visiting the University campus during spring break of 1976, Plaintiff was hired as a faculty member on a twelvemonth contract. All other regular faculty members are and were on a nine-month contract.

Twenty-five percent of Plaintiff’s contract time was to be devoted to minority affairs and recruitment during the summer. Twenty-five percent of Plaintiff’s salary for the first year was donated by private industry for assistance in hiring minority faculty.

Plaintiff was extended tenure after his first year as a faculty member. In February of 1977, Dr. J.R. Yeargan assumed the Chair of the Electrical Engineering Department, with the responsibility of evaluating faculty and making salary recommendations for the department.

Salary raises are based upon the performance of each faculty member for each year as well as cumulative past performance. Areas of evaluation include teaching, research, and service.

Based upon Dr. Yeargan’s evaluation of Plaintiff, Plaintiff received the following pay raises for the 1977-78 to 1982-83 school years:

1977- 78 . 7%
1978- 79 9%
1979- 80 5%
1980- 81 8%
1981- 82 9.7%
1982- 83 6.2%

Plaintiff’s raises were generally lower than a majority of the department faculty, but higher than at least one of the department faculty. All other faculty members within the department are white.

Those white faculty members who received higher percentage raises received superior evaluations. Plaintiff’s salary increases are comparable to the raises of white faculty members with similar evaluations.

The percentage raises are determined by the total budget for salaries within the department, then apportioned to the individual faculty members according to the evaluations.

Plaintiff’s contract was reduced to a nine-month contract in 1980-81, after private funding diminished, in conformity with the other faculty in the department.

Plaintiff was evaluated as “good” in the service area, particularly with respect to his contribution to minority student recruitment and retention.

Plaintiff’s teaching load was “average” for the most part, never excessive, and on occasional semesters was comparatively light.

Plaintiff has never submitted any research proposals in his area of academic specialty, rather all of his proposals have been in the area of minority affairs.

Plaintiff has never submitted any manuscripts for publication in referred journals, although encouraged to do so.

Numerous student complaints were received concerning Plaintiff’s competency and effectiveness as a teacher. No evidence was adduced that other teachers within the department received such complaints.

*119 The evaluation process used in the department was uniformly applied to all members of the faculty in the department. Research, publishing and new course development are valid and relevant factors to be considered by the department in formulating the faculty evaluations.

Because of the rapid development of the state of the science, research and publishing take on more importance in electrical engineering than in some other fields.

The criteria by which Plaintiff and the other faculty members in the department were uniformly evaluated are legitimate and job-related.

Dr. Halligan, Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs, testified that even though Plaintiff’s contract was reduced to nine months, Plaintiff has worked twelve months every year. Dr. Halligan testified further that this normally results in an increased salary because a salary for a nine month contract is 80% of a salary for a twelve month contract, and a summer contract pays an additional 33%.

Plaintiff has not demonstrated a prima facie case of racial discrimination.

Plaintiff has failed to show that his work environment was sufficiently pervasively discriminatory and offensive either in scope or extent.

Defendants have articulated legitimate non-discriminatory reasons for the actions taken, and Plaintiff has failed to show that these reasons are pretextual.

II. Discussion

Plaintiff alleges three principal areas of discriminatory treatment. These are (1) The reduction of Plaintiff’s appointment from a twelve-month to a nine-month contract; (2) The salary increases Plaintiff received; and (3) Racial harassment. Each will be addressed in turn.

A. The Contract Reduction

Plaintiff was hired as a full associate professor of Electrical Engineering in 1976 and extended tenure a year later. In this regard Plaintiff was given preferential treatment in that it normally requires several years for one to be extended an associate professorship.

One of the principal reasons Plaintiff was hired was to assist the University in recruiting black engineering students to meet its desegregation goals. Plaintiff asserts that it was material to Plaintiff that he be hired on a twelve-month contract because he had twelve-month contracts in private industry. Exactly why it is more material to Plaintiff than to any other person who might consider leaving private industry for a teaching position is unknown.

Plaintiff argues that Defendants have failed to articulate a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for the reduction.

The fact of the matter, however, is that the extension of a twelve-month contract and an associate professorship to a new faculty member is the rare exception rather than rule.

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Related

Rollins v. Farris
108 F.R.D. 714 (E.D. Arkansas, 1985)
Greenwood v. Ross
778 F.2d 448 (Eighth Circuit, 1985)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
567 F. Supp. 116, 39 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1170, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16503, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tolliver-v-yeargan-arwd-1983.