GUEST COLUMNIST: Perils of the Trammell Crow deal

Laurie Eichenbaum, Guest Columnist Laurie Eichenbaum, Guest Columnist Is University President Judith Rodin backsliding on her commitments to the lesbian, gay and bisexual community? Based on the record of her administration, it sure looks like it. While giving lip service to non-discrimination, Rodin appears to have given carte blanche to her subordinates to ignore the basic human rights principles embraced by the University community. Yet the real threat to lesbians, gays and bisexuals at Penn comes from outsourcing, a policy which is selling off its LGB employees to companies that refuse to grant them the same basic rights enjoyed by the rest of the University community. When Executive Vice President John Fry announced that he was outsourcing The Book Store to Barnes & Noble, he did not protect the rights of LGB employees to equal access to health care for life partners. This decision pales in significance, however, with what Fry has done with the Trammell Crow deal. Fifteen months ago, Fry signed a contract to outsource the management of Penn's investment real estate to the Dallas-based company. No one was told that the company did not have an equal opportunity policy for sexual minorities. Then, Fry announced October 9 that he was selling 110-140 University employees to the same company for $32 million, and people started asking questions. Rather than simply acknowledging that Trammell Crow Co., the largest commercial real estate management company in the nation, did not have a policy of non-discrimination and equal opportunity for LGB employees, Fry tried to hide that fact. And he continues to lie to the University community about Trammell Crow's policy toward sexual minorities. Regarding questions about Tramell Crow's policy on discrimination against lesbians, gays and bisexuals, Fry's November 10 memo to Facilities Management and Housing Services Staff states, "The Tramell Crow Company is committed to the principles of equal employment opportunity." However, the attached memo from Trammell Crow explicitly omits sexual orientation from its non-discrimination policy. When questioned about this, Trammell Crow printed a release saying that the company "monitors personnel actions to ensure that they are nondiscriminatory and in accordance with Federal, State and Local laws. "The actual text of the Affirmative Action statement will be reviewed by TCC Human Resources personnel to insure that this is included in the statement itself." In other words, Trammell Crow does not protect its LGB employees. The City of Philadelphia protects LGB employees from Trammell Crow! The company's vice president for human resources, Hazel Lockett, made this clear November 25, when she said, "On a national basis we will make sure that we have captured everything that we need to capture." Yet, they will not capture sexual orientation because, "it's not as easy as just saying let's put it in the policy. That has to go to the national VP level." In other words, "capturing" protections for lesbian, gay and bisexual employees is of no concern to upper management. Likewise, Fry refuses to make these protections a non-negotiable part of the contract. What this means is this: Trammell Crow's official attitude toward lesbian, gay and bisexual discrimination is that there is nothing wrong with it as long as there is no law against it. The issue here is a whole lot bigger than the relatively small number of LGB employees affected by the Trammell Crow deal. This deal sets an extraordinarily dangerous precedent, not only at Penn, but nationwide. This is the first contract of its kind with any institution of higher education, and Trammell Crow has every intention of expanding its higher education empire. Colleges and universities have traditionally been at the forefront of the fight for equal treatment of LGB people in the workplace, and this represents a huge step backward. If Fry signs the Trammell Crow contract knowing full well that the company refuses to provide equal rights to its lesbian, gay and bisexual employees, there will be little question that he is utterly unfit to serve as executive vice president of this institution. At this point, given Trammell Crow's record of deliberate misrepresentation of is policy and Fry's knowing participation in that deception, it is imperative that University officials demand that Trammell Crow take active steps to ensure that every single one of its employees fully understands that discrimination against sexual minorities is simply unacceptable under any circumstances, and regardless of what office they happen to work out of. Unfortunately, given this administration's dismal record, there is little to suggest that this will happen. Rodin talks a real good game, but if this contract gets signed without significant changes in the way that Trammell Crow does business, there can be no doubt that her "principles" are nothing but talk.