Legal Advocacy Fund Cases

Case History
Marlene Glaser, an associate professor of mathematics at Fulton-Montgomery Community College (FMCC), sued the college for sex discrimination in the denial of promotion, and retaliation for complaining about the denial of promotion, in violation of Title VII and New York state laws.

In 1986 FMCC hired Glaser as an instructor and promoted her to tenured assistant professor three years later. During her employment, she discovered that her rank and salary were lower than less qualified male professors. In addition, her immediate supervisor, the dean of arts and sciences, was hostile to her without justification and negatively evaluated Glaser's performance. Her applications for promotion to associate professor were denied from 1992 through 1995.

Glaser unsuccessfully appealed the promotion decisions to the FMCC president and vice president in 1993. During the 1994-95 academic year, Glaser discovered that other women under the dean's supervision were also experiencing hostile treatment. Five of these women, including Glaser, appealed to the FMCC president as a group in July 1995. To protect their claim, three of the five women filed complaints with the New York Division of Human Rights and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in October 1995. Later that year, FMCC responded and denied all claims of discrimination.

Following this, things improved somewhat for Glaser: A new dean of arts and sciences, who replaced her former immediate supervisor, favorably recommended Glaser's 1996 application for promotion to associate professor. But after the DHR determined that there was no probable cause for the female faculty's allegations in 1998, the climate at FMCC again became unfriendly. The dean who had recommended Glaser's promotion to associate professor in 1996 left FMCC, and his replacement allegedly expressed hostility to Glaser and refused to provide her with favorable promotion recommendations.

Glaser first filed suit in federal court in 1998 alleging discrimination in the denial of promotion from assistant to associate professor. Later that year Glaser's application for promotion to the rank of professor was denied, though the one man who applied for promotion to professor at the same time Glaser applied was promoted. In March 2000 Glaser filed a second lawsuit that alleged sex discrimination and retaliation in the denial of promotion from associate to full professor in the 1998 academic year. This suit was eventually consolidated with the original suit. In 2002, a federal district court granted summary judgment to FMCC, dismissing Glaser's consolidated suit. On appeal, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court's opinion.

Glaser again filed suit against the college in 2001, this time alleging sex discrimination and retaliation in the denial of promotion from associate to full professor in both 1999 and 2000. In August 2004, the district court granted FMCC's motion for summary judgment, dismissing Glaser's second suit in its entirety. In fall 2004, Glaser filed a notice of appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, challenging the lower court's order granting FMCC's motion for summary judgment in her second suit. She subsequently dropped the appeal.

Key Case Issues
Sex discrimination in the denial of promotion, and retaliation for complaining about the denial of promotion, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and New York state laws.