Professors appeal salary lawsuit ruling
Seventy-two Metro faculty members ask judge to reconsider
restitution descision
By Jesse Stephenson
The Metropoltian
Members of Metroâs faculty who sued the collegeâs board of trustees over salary issues are asking the judge who presided over the case to reconsider part of his ruling.
The 72 faculty members had a bittersweet victory in District Court on July 28. District Court Judge Robert S. Hyatt ruled last month that the trustees knowingly and repeatedly failed to pay Metro professorsâ salaries up to par with those of similar colleges.
Hyatt also found the board failed to pay longtime Metro professors as much as newly hired faculty members.
Hyatt called Metroâs failure to properly pay its faculty a breach of contract.
Faculty members named as plaintiffs in the suit are hailing the ruling as a victory, but are much less enthusiastic about what Hyatt ordered the state to pay each defendant in restitution: $1.
Hyatt said in his ruling that he decided to reward each plaintiff only a dollar because of flaws in the model the faculty presented to him to calculate their underpayment.
Some faculty want to appeal the case in hopes of recovering more money, said Norm Pence, a Metro professor who is a plaintiff in the suit.
ãWe won the case and everything we claimed the college did wrong was indeed true,ä Pence said. ãBut the $1 was really kind of a slap in the face and some of the professors will be going through the appeal process.ä
Pence said he will know by the end of August how many professors will appeal. He said about 15 professors were interested in taking the case to the court of appeals.
Meanwhile John Schmidt, a Metro professor and president of the Faculty Protective Association, the group of professors who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said the attorney for the FPA recently filed an appeal in Hyattâs court. That appeal requests that Hyatt look at state testimony to calculate how much the state should pay in restitution to the plaintiffs instead of using the FPA model to make that calculation, Schmidt said.
During the trial, attorneys for the state conceded that Metro professors were underpaid by about 8 percent for between 1991-93, Schmidt said.
He said if Hyatt decides to reconsider his award, the other plan to appeal the ruling will be dismantled.
ãIf he awards us that 8 percent, which many faculty will say is gross underpayment, then the appeal process for this case will effectively die,ä Schmidt said.
In addition to the possible appeal, the ruling gave the green light to the FPAâs executive commitee to ask Gov. Roy Romer to appoint a task force to develop remedies for the collegeâs salary problems.
Romer is responsible for appointing members of the collegeâs governing board.
The FPA will send the formal request to Romer on Aug. 22, said Charles Allbee, a Metro English professor and FPA secretary.
Allbee said he wonât be among the professors who will appeal but wants Hyattâs rulings to show Metroâs trustees and administration that salary issues need to be addressed.
ãThis case established as fact some of things (the FPA) has contended for years,ä Allbee said.
Cile Chavez, chairwoman of the board of trustees, declined comment on the case.
ãI really do think it is more appropriate to say no comment,ä she said.
