The settlement fund will compensate 84 professors, and Vassar also agreed to implement several pay equity reforms as part of the deal.
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Vassar College agreed to a $5 million settlement in a class action lawsuit brought by women full professors who alleged they were paid less than their equally qualified male colleagues, Equal Rights Advocates, a nonprofit legal and advocacy organization that represented the women, announced in a news release Friday.
The settlement fund will compensate 84 professors; Vassar also agreed to implement several pay equity reforms as part of the deal. Going forward, the former women’s college will make criteria and methods for compensation decisions more transparent, according to the news release.
“This step reflects years of efforts by women faculty members at Vassar, first privately and then in court, to get Vassar to eliminate a gender-based pay gap of which the college has long been aware,” Catherine Bendor, director of litigation at Equal Rights Advocates and co-counsel for the plaintiffs, said in the release. “Our clients worked hard to achieve justice not only for themselves and their colleagues, but for all future women professors. We hope the terms of the proposed settlement, and the experience of this lawsuit, will result in Vassar appropriately recognizing the contributions of all of its women faculty.”
Vassar will also commission a third party to conduct annual pay equity audits of full professor compensation—something the college is already doing, according to a public message from Board of Trustees chair Sharon Davidson Chang.
“I want to reaffirm the Board of Trustees’ and the College’s unwavering commitment to pay equity,” she wrote. “Our rigorous, ongoing review of faculty evaluation and compensation practices has reinforced that commitment, strengthened our processes, and will continue to advance fairness, transparency, and institutional excellence at Vassar in the years ahead.”
