On Monday, it was announced that the UO Senate would seeking faculty sponsors for a motion on the Jennifer Freyd Equal Pay Act law suit at the senate meeting today. The Senate resolution would support Freyd’s suit proceeding to a jury trial, which UO administration has been attempting to block. Late yesterday, the Senate President shared a letter from the University’s General Counsel announcing that the University would not be seeking Supreme Court review of the March 15th Ninth Circuit decision.
"This means that rather than fighting about the law at the highest appellate levels, the case will now go to trial where each side can present its facts and claims," said Oregon Law's nonprofit clinic director Beatrice Dohrn in an email. "Thanks for your support, and for being willing to stick your neck out for this important matter. It’s hard to imagine that the list of well over 80 co-sponsors was not influential."
Faculty sponsors plan to withdraw the original motion and instead develop a statement disagreeing with the administration’s positions asserted in the General Counsel letter.
"Counsel’s letter contains a long rehash of the University’s rationales for its offensive position in the case," Dohrn said. "It’s hard to let this stand, unopposed, in the record, so we are composing a short statement in hopes of ensuring that the Senate’s records are clear about the basis of the withdrawal, and reserving our objection should the University return to these arguments in appeals after trial."
For more on some of the implication of this case for many others at UO, see:
- Freyd v. University of Oregon, No. 19-35428 (9th Cir. March 15, 2021), American Association of University Professors (AAUP), March 2021
- Federal appeals court revives UO professor’s suit alleging ‘glaring’ pay gap between her and male counterparts, by Maxine Bernstein, The Oregonian/OregonLive, 17 March 2021.
- Recent Ninth Circuit Equal Pay Act Decision A Reminder To Examine and Eliminate Gender-Based Pay Disparity (US), The National Law Review, Volume XI, Number 76, 17 March 2021.