Atkinson v. Lafayette College

653 F.Supp.2d 581

Eve ATKINSON, Plaintiff, v. LAFAYETTE COLLEGE, et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 01-2141.

United States District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania.

September 9, 2009.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Alan B. Epstein, Jennifer L. Myers, Spector Gadon & Rosen, PC, Philadelphia, PA, for Plaintiff.

Barry Simon, Dara Penn Newman, Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart P.C., John G. Harkins, Jr., Neill C. Kling, Harkins Cunningham, Philadelphia, PA, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM

BUCKWALTER, Senior District Judge.

Currently pending before the Court is a Motion by Defendant Lafayette College for Summary Judgment, the Response thereto of Plaintiff Eve Atkinson, and Defendant's Reply Brief. For the following reasons, the Motion is granted and the case is dismissed in its entirety.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Statement of Facts¹

Plaintiff, Eve Atkinson, received her bachelor and masters degrees from West Chester University, and a doctorate in education from Temple University. (Pl.'s Resp. Mot. Summ. J., Ex. V.) In November 1989, she met with Herman Kissiah, Dean of Students at Defendant Lafayette College ("Lafayette" or "the College"), in connection with an opening in the athletics department. (Def.'s Mot. Summ. J., Ex. B, Eve Atkinson Dep. ("Atkinson Dep."), 23:22-25:4, Nov. 22, 2002, Dec. 17, 2002, Sep. 19, 2008.)² On December 28, 1989, the College hired her in the position of Director of Athletics and Professor and Head. Physical Education and Athletics, thereby making her the first woman appointed as athletic director in a coed Division I-AA program. (Id. at 84:14-19; Def.'s Mot. Summ. J., Ex. A.) Her appointment letter stated, as follows:

[Lafayette College] is pleased to appoint you to the position of Director of Athletics and Professor and Head, Physical Education and Athletics, effective January 29, 1990, with term thereafter at the pleasure of the President of the college and the board of Trustees. It is further understood that your initial appointment will be through June 30, 1992, and that you would be subject to the procedures for due notice as apply to the faculty which would ensure you a minimum of one year's notice.

(Def.'s Mot. Summ. J., Ex. A.) As Plaintiff testified. Dean Kissiah told her that "the position was a position with faculty appointment. It was an administrative position plus a faculty appointment position. . . . He said the position was not offered at that time with tenure, but that it was a faculty position and that it would be controlled by the faculty handbook." (Atkinson Dep. 54:2-22.) Effectively, it encompassed three roles: (1) full professor; (2) department head; and (3) director of athletics. (Id. at 57:16-19.)

Plaintiff was not terminated after her initial two and a half year term. Rather, from July 1, 1990 to July 1, 2000, Plaintiff was notified, on an annual basis, of salary increases. (Def.'s Mot. Summ. J., Ex. J.)

Part of Plaintiff's responsibility involved ensuring compliance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits, in part, sex discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. 20 U.S.C. § 1681, et seq. Throughout her tenure with the College. Plaintiff was involved with Title IX issues, including advocating for both female employees and female students in the athletic programs. (Atkinson Dep. 150:8-18, 425:11-426:9, 507:12-508:1.) Part of her obligations included looking at the subject of gender equity under Title IX, ensuring that the College was in compliance with Title IX and, if it was not in compliance, "to offer remedies to resolve that." (Id. at 363:14-365:3.) As Plaintiff testified, the President of the College, Dr. Ellis, encouraged her to address issues regarding the disparities between men's and women's sports at the College. (Id. at 161:16-24.) Such encouragement was ongoing from at least 1992 through to the tenure of later President Arthur Rothkopf. (Id. at 575: 21-576:1.)

From the outset of her appointment, Plaintiff complained about gender inequities in the Department of Athletics and regularly made recommendations on Title IX issues. (Id. at 364:9-365:3; 555:22-556:13, 572:6-576:12; Pl.'s Resp. Mot. Summ. J., Ex. J, Atkinson Aff. ("Atkinson Aff.") ¶ 8, Feb. 18, 2003.) In the course of her almost decade-long employment, Plaintiff worked on increasing scholarships to women athletes, (id. 159:22-156:3). equitable funding of sports programs, (id. at 245:3-12), hiring full-time as opposed to part-time coaches for the women's athletic programs, (id. at 287:12-24), and ensuring equal pay for the female coaching staff. (Id. at 425:11-426:9. 507:12-20.) Patricia Fisher, the women's basketball coach and later the College's assistant athletic director, testified that Plaintiff was vocal in her advocacy for Title IX compliance and voiced her opinions openly at committee meetings. (Pl.'s Resp. Mot. Summ. J., Ex. C. Patricia Fisher Dep. ("Fisher Dep."), 22:1-23:19, Dec. 17, 2008.)

In January of 1996, Plaintiff became involved with a College self-study designed, in part, to evaluate the College's efforts on gender and racial equality. (Def.'s Mot. Summ. J., Ex. C, Leslie Muhlfelder Dep. ("Muhlfelder Dep."), 17:17-19:4, Dec. 18, 2008.) The findings were to be presented to the National Collegiate Athletic Association ("NCAA"). (Id.) Leslie Muhlfelder, the College's General Counsel, was appointed by President Rothkopf to chair the Subcommittee on Commitment to Equity because of her knowledge of Title IX. (Muhlfelder Dep. 18:13-19:4; Atkinson Dep. 632:12-633:11.)

Although Plaintiff was not a member of the Subcommittee, she saved as staff to provide information regarding the athletics department. (Muhlfelder Dep. 20:6-21:4.) In that role, she repeatedly raised issues of gender equality in the context of the College's athletic budget. (Atkinson Aff. ¶ 9.) For example, in the summer of 1996, Plaintiff presented a multitude of points to Dean Kissiah, to which he responded as follows:

Let me pick up on a couple of items on your retreat. Clearly the program was a comprehensive one and covered the many issues facing our athletic program. I commend you for the way you've organized the department for the benefit of Lafayette.

I do want to call your attention to a couple of minor points on which we might want to move slowly. I note these as follows:

1. Mission Statement—lets go slow on putting this down on parchment and displaying it in the lobby. I do want approval of the Board by September 28 before we go widely public.

2. NCAA Certification—I do agree that we need to meet these deadlines and I will do better this next year.

3. Addition of Women's Crew—I suggest we don't even bother with this one at this time. I will be happy to discuss with you at some length if need be.

4. Hoops Pass—we can discuss later on as noted in an earlier memo to you.

5. Logo—Good idea. Make sure that Scott keeps Glenn fully advised and that it is consistent with what Glenn wants to do with the College's overall program.

6. Twenty Five Years of Women's Athletics—Great idea, maybe AJR [President Rothkopf] will give us some money on this one.

(Pl.'s Resp. Mot. Summ. J., Ex. W.) Further, in an October 30, 1996 memorandum from Plaintiff to Muhlfelder. Plaintiff demonstrated her continued awareness of and advocacy for Title IX issues:

Listed below are the needs we feel need to be addressed by the committee and items of recommendations to be included in the final report of the Commitment to Equity Committee. These needs are ones that we believe are necessary to enable the Department of Athletics and Physical Education to become more equitable within its entire program.

1. Add on full-time assistant coaches of Women's Sports.

2. Elevate one part-time head coach of a women's sport to full-time status.

3. Hire a minority female coach(es) for a women's team(s),

4. Recruitment of additional minority student-athletes for women's teams.

5. Renovate locker room facilities at Kirby Field House.

6. Renovate McCracken Field House for additional women's locker rooms.

7. Add two additional outdoor playing fields at Metzgar for women's teams.

8. Separate budget accounts for the same or like sports that have different Head Coaches.

9. Re-evaluate coaching positions for teams and discuss overlapping of coaching and other job responsibilities.

We would be available to discuss the justifications of these items with the committee and would be grateful for any help the committee could offer to our department in these areas. Thank you for your assistance.

(Pl.'s Resp. Mot. Summ. J., Ex. E.)

The full report of the College self-study was submitted to the NCAA in fall 1997. (Muhlfelder Dep. 21:19-24.) It concluded that, as of June 30, 1996, the College had demonstrated equitable treatment of men and women in various areas, but recommended renovation of women's locker room space at Kirby House and McCracken Field House. (Def.'s Mot. Summ. J., Ex. D.) In addition, the report deferred to the Gender Equity Plan developed by Plaintiff and her staff recommending elevation of a part-time women's team coaching position to full-time equivalency by June 30, 1999, and implementation of a long-range plan for reallocating coaching staff and positions within the Department by June 30, 2000, to provide more full-time recruitment of female student-athletes. (Id.)

In May of 1998. the NCAA certified the College as compliant with Title IX and indicated that any Title IX plans for improvement outlined by the College had to be implemented according to the College's self-imposed deadlines. (Atkinson Dep., Ex. 30.) Additionally, the NCAA imposed several requirements that did not affect current certification, but which the College would be required to enact in order to maintain certification. (Id.) The NCAA and President Rothkopf corresponded about these latter requirements over the summer of 1998. (Id. Ex. 31.) By August 20, 1998, the NCAA conclusively determined that "the...