U., former Wharton prof settle discrimination case

and MICHAEL SIROLLY The University has reached a settlement with a former Wharton professor who sued the University over sexual and racial discrimination in a bitter seven-year case which ultimately involved the U.S. Supreme Court. In a statement, the University says that the settlement, reached June 26 with former Associate Management Professor Rosalie Tung, was "concluded on terms agreeable to both parties, and without any findings or admission of fault of liability." The statement, printed in an advertisement in this week's Summer Pennsylvanian, does not specify or even hint at the terms of the agreement. Tung, now teaching at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, could not be reached. Wharton news officer Michael Baltes referred all questions to General Counsel Shelley Green, who did not immediately return a phone message. The fight began in 1985 when Tung was denied tenure. She challenged the denial, filing a complaint with a faculty grievance panel. The panel found that a number of procedural irregularities resulted in a flawed review of her tenure bid. Claiming employment discrimination, Tung, who is black, then took her complaint to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the late 1980's. The EEOC began investigating Tung's charges of sexual and racial discrimination. But the agency soon ran into trouble when the University refused to provide the EEOC with Tung's complete tenure file. In January 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the University to submit the confidential peer reviews to the EEOC. The University then supplied the EEOC with files, but with a twist: the files were redacted, or altered to erase names and other identifiable. This drew criticism from the EEOC officials who claimed that the redaction rendered the files incomplete. The redaction, which the University defended on the grounds that the files were confidential, led some on campus to criticize the University for fighting the EEOC's request all the way to the Supreme Court. The case had remained fairly quiet in recent years. There had been no publicity surrounding the case for some time prior to last month's settlement. The statement reads: "In 1985, Roaslie Tung, then an Associate Professor, was denied tenure by the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. After considering her complaint, a Faculty Grievance panel concluded that certain procedural irregularities had occurred. The Panel further concluded that these irregularities, although not individually significant, when taken collectively result in a flawed review of Dr. Tung's qualifications. The University administration accepted this conclusion and agreed that the review process did not result in an adequate review of Professor Tung's performance, qualifications and credentials."

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