Palo Alto Branch Members' Cases
LAF Grants and Support
LAF Progress in Equity Award
Recent Case Notes
AAUW Palo Alto and the Legal Advocacy Fund
AAUW Palo Alto actively supports the Legal
Advocacy Fund through visibility and fund raising within the branch and our
community. Our most recent fund raising event in support of LAF was a dramatic
re-enactment of the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. Entitled All Men and Women
Are Created Equal, the living history presentation featured historical
celebrities Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Judge Daniel Cady, Henry
Stanton, Mary Ann McClintock, and Frederick Douglas; the audience added to the
re-creation of the convention as voting delegates. Other fund raisers have
included a staged reading of Lessons of Love, Lust and Life that featured six
historical female figures including Queen Cleopatra, Queen Victoria and
Margaret Sanger; and AAUW Palo Alto member Anne Saldich's Board of Contributors opinion piece
in the Palo Alto Weekly about Crangle v. Stanford University.
AAUW Palo Alto is consistently featured on the LAF
Top Branches list, a recognition given by AAUW to those branches with the
highest per capita contributions. Our branch is known for its leadership in
realizing the mission of keeping higher education free from sex discrimination.
For more information about our branchs LAF involvement, contact LAF VP, AAUW Palo Alto.
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Palo Alto Branch Members' Cases
Zylbert v. Stanford University School of
Medicine, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center: AAUW Palo Alto branch member
Barbara Zylbert is a current LAF-sponsored litigant in her suit against
Stanford University and Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. AAUW LAF adopted her
case in September 2001; this is the fourth case LAF has supported against Stanford University.
On January 11, 2002 part of Zylbert's lawsuit was dismissed; the other part of
the lawsuit against Valley Medical Center is now scheduled to go to trial. See
the LAF case description for more information
about Zylbert's case. Read the articles in the Palo Alto Weekly and the San Francisco Chronicle for recent media
publicity about the case.
Crangle v. Stanford University: AAUW Palo
Alto branch member Dr. Colleen Crangle was a LAF-sponsored litigant in her suit
against Stanford University. The case went to court in March 2000, and the jury
found in favor of Crangle. Stanford subsequently appealed the verdict, and
final settlement was reached in May 2001. See Colleen Crangle's web site for historical
information about her case. Colleen was a featured speaker at the AAUW
California State Convention in May 2000; and her moving speech about her
experiences during her legal battle gave her a standing ovation. Judy Brodsky,
AAUW Palo Alto LAF VP 1999-2000, interviewed Crangle shortly after the jury verdict;
read the text of this interview for a timeless view
into the struggles involved in fighting discrimination.
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Legal Advocacy Fund Grants and Support
The Legal Advocacy Fund has supported more than 70
cases and contributed more than $750,000 in case support. Since 1981, LAF has
helped students, faculty, and administrators in higher education challenge
discriminatory practices. LAF organizes a network of volunteer attorneys and
social scientists to consult with women on legal strategy, informational
resources, and the strength of current or potential lawsuits.
The AAUW LAF board selects cases for support using
a 3-part decision making process.
- Plaintiffs and their attorneys submit
applications, which LAF staff review to ensure the basic qualifications
for support are met: the case has been filed in a state or federal court;
the defendant named is a college or university; the complaint includes a
charge of sex discrimination.
- Applications passing the initial review are sent
to the LAF Advisory Committee. The Advisory Committee, appointed by the
LAF board, consists of eight AAUW members of which at least six are attorneys.
The Advisory Committee members work in teams to review applications
against specific criteria set forth by the LAF board: plaintiff's need for
financial aid; high probability of success; potential significance of the
case for women in higher education. The Advisory Committee team members
review the application, case documents, and evidence; confer with one
another by conference call; and make recommendations to the LAF board.
- LAF board members weigh the comments of the
Advisory Committee, confer with staff, and decide whether to adopt a case
and what level of support to provide.
LAF President Sylvia Newmans ten tips on what to do if you experience
sex discrimination at college were published in the Ann Landers column on April
29, 2000. For more information about LAF and its case support, go to the American Association of University Women
website.
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Legal Advocacy Fund Progress in Equity
Award
The Legal Advocacy Fund provides annual
recognition for programs that advance equity on campus and provide models for
other institutions. These Progress in Equity awards encourage innovative efforts
to improve the climate for women on campus. For more information on the LAF
Progress in Equity award, go to the American Association of University Women
website.
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Case Notes
Steven v. Case Western Reserve University:
Carol Stephen, an assistant professor of biology at Case Western Reserve
University, was awarded $5,000 by LAF to support her tenure discrimination
lawsuit. Stephen joined Case University in 1992 as the department's only
tenure-track woman. During her eight years at Case, she had many
accomplishments including authoring more than a dozen articles in prominent
scientific journals; teaching five courses; running a research laboratory; and
mentoring graduate students. Despite this success, Stephen alleges that she was
subjected to a hostile work environment that made it extremely unlikely that
she would be able to prepare for a successful tenure review. In Stephen's
annual reviews, the biology department failed to give her credit for her
publication record, her editing of a scientific book that received a top review
in the journal Nature, and her success
in securing $920,000 in grant funds. In addition, Stephen alleges that the biology
department inserted inaccurate information in her tenure file, did not allow
her to answer charges that involved disputes with her graduate students, and
failed to give her written reasons for negative tenure reviews, a violation of
Case's Faculty Handbook. After she was
denied tenure in 1998, Stephen was granted a second review in 1999. During this
time, three review panels convened independently of the biology department to
evaluate her case. The panels determined that the biology department and provost
acted in violation of the rules in the faculty handbook. The panels recommended
that letters of apology be issued to Stephen, that negative items be removed
from her file, and that the university assist Stephen in rebuilding her career.
The president accepted none of these recommendations.
Stephen was the first woman to be considered for
tenure and promotion in the biology department since 1974. During the eight
years that Stephen was in the department of 14 faculty, the only other tenured
or tenure-track woman was a woman who spent 39 years as an assistant and
associate professor before being promoted to full professor at age 70. The Case
University biology department was 92 percent tenured male during Stephen's
first tenure review and 100 percent tenured male during her second review.
After exhausting the internal grievance process at the university, Stephen
filed a complaint with the EEOC and subsequently filed a lawsuit in federal
court in March 2001. Stephen's case was adopted by LAF in June 2001.
For information about other recent LAF cases, see
the recent AAUW LAF Update.
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