Open letter to the University of Oregon Board of Trustees
in support of Dr. Jennifer Freyd and gender equity in the Department of Psychology
[Update on 19 Jan 2021: Dr. Freyd writes: “Today I learned that the University of Oregon (UO) has decided to alter the Early Retirement Incentive Program (ERIP) waiver requirement to exclude from any release any claims that are actively being litigated as of the time the ERIP program was initiated. This means I can participate in the retirement program without having to drop my gender discrimination lawsuit. I am appreciative of the UO for making this change and I am particularly grateful to my colleagues and supporters in this department and at the university and beyond. Together we will pursue equity and justice.” This resolves point one in the letter below — HA]
12 January 2021
Dear Trustees,
As members of the University of Oregon psychology department, we are writing to share our support for our colleague Professor Jennifer Freyd, who, like a growing number of the female faculty members in our department, has experienced sustained gender discrimination in her salary. Unlike the rest of us, she is now confronting an additional particular injustice because she is being barred from taking the 2021 retirement incentive package offer unless she abandons her lawsuit seeking justice.
We are writing for three reasons.
The first, and most immediately urgent, is to ask you to quickly address this particular injustice (point 3 in Professor Freyd’s open letter of 5 Jan 2021, see https://jenniferfreyd.medium.com/). It is unnecessarily adding insult to an already long-standing injury. It is also time sensitive as the window to enroll in the retirement plan will close in a few weeks. After 33 years of outstanding service to the university, our colleague deserves better.
The second is to publicly affirm our support for Professor Freyd’s efforts to draw broader attention to gender inequity in our department, a problem that over the past seven years has only worsened. The numbers show that the salaries of female faculty at both the full AND the associate level are now disadvantaged relative to our male colleagues. Professor Freyd’s case is not anomalous: instead it is one example of a broader problem. We reject the idea that the research, teaching, and service of the women in our department are consistently and systematically of lower quality, lower importance, or lower value than that of the men in our department.
The third is to encourage you to support concrete steps to address this inequity. Failing to do so is affecting the university’s reputation (point 2 in Dr. Freyd’s letter of 5 January 2021), could deter talented academic women from joining the UO, and also affect our ability to retain the female faculty members who are already here. For our many female graduate students, the prospect of facing a similar devaluing of their contributions to science is demoralizing. Confronting this problem would also align with the university’s mission (https://www.uoregon.edu/our-mission) which asserts that “We value our diversity and seek to foster equity and inclusion in a welcoming, safe, and respectful community.”
Sincerely —
Holly Arrow, Professor and Chair, Committee for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Co-signers:
Alexis Adams-Clark, Doctoral Student and Graduate Employee
Nick Allen, Professor
Anisha Babu, Doctoral Student and Graduate Employee
Dare Baldwin, Professor and Founder, Departmental Equity Task Force
Ann-Marie Barrett, Doctoral Student and Graduate Employee
Theodore Bell, Instructor
Victoria Braun, Project Manager
Benjamin Chaloupka, Doctoral Student and Graduate Employee
Rob Chavez, Assistant Professor
Theresa Cheng, Doctoral Candidate
Bernice Cheung, Doctoral Student and Graduate Employee
Paul Dassonville, Associate Professor
Crystal Dehle, Clinical Professor, Director of the UO Psychology Clinic
Sarah Dimakis, Doctoral Student and Graduate Employee
Eliott Doyle, Doctoral Student and Graduate Employee
Ruth Ellingsen, Clinical Assistant Professor
Samantha Ellis, Master’s Student
Andrew Fridman, Doctoral Student and Graduate Employee
Leticia Garcia, Graduate Student
Stephanie Gluck, Doctoral Student
Nate Gonzales Hess, Master’s Student
Victoria Guazzelli Williamson, Doctoral Student and Graduate Employee
Alison Helzer, Accounting Technician
Sara Hodges, Professor of Psychology and Associate Dept Head, Dept of Psychology
Sarah Horn, Doctoral Candidate
Bradley Hughes, Doctoral Candidate
Andrea Imhof, Doctoral Student and Graduate Employee
Elizabeth Ivie, Doctoral Student and Graduate Employee
Rose Jeffries, Graduate Student and Research Assistant
Christina Karns, Research Assistant Professor and Instructor
Amy Konyn, Doctoral Candidate and Graduate Employee
Jessica E. Kosie, Princeton University Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Oregon Psychology Ph.D. (2019)
Monika Lind, Doctoral Candidate and Graduate Employee
Elizabeth Loi, Doctoral Candidate
Lemia Mahayni, Administrative Assistant
Anne Mannering, Career Lecturer and Online Master’s in Psychology Program Director
Christina Gamache Martin, Research Associate
Elizabeth McNeilly, Doctoral Student and Graduate Employee
Ashley L. Miller, Doctoral Candidate and Graduate Employee
Kate Mills, Assistant Professor
Lou Moses, Emeritus Professor
Kavya Mudiam, Doctoral Candidate and Graduate Employee
Akhila Nekkanti, Doctoral Candidate
Jacqueline O’Brien, Doctoral Candidate
Karlena Ochoa Steigerwald, Doctoral Candidate, Committee for an Inclusive Community Rep.
Mason Price, Postdoctoral Scholar
Kelly Robles, Doctoral Student and Graduate Employee
Robert Rocklin, Doctoral Candidate; Pro Tem Faculty, School of Law
Maddie Rozics, Master’s Student
Gerard Saucier, Professor
Zachary Schroeder, Doctoral Student and Graduate Employee
Margaret Sereno, Associate Professor and Chair, Departmental Equity Task Force
Meghan Siritzky, Doctoral Student and Graduate Employee
Paul Slovic, Professor
Nisha Sridhar, Master’s Student
Sanjay Srivastava, Professor
Moriah Stendel, Doctoral Student and Graduate Employee
Vinita Vader, Doctoral Student and Graduate Employee
Marjorie Watkins Cherkasky, Research Assistant
Mike Wehr, Professor
Amanda Welch, Doctoral Student and Graduate Employee
Allissa Whiting, Master’s Student
Lucy Whitmore, Research Assistant
Larissa Williams, Research Assistant
Maria Wixwat, Doctoral Student and Graduate Employee
Anna Wright, Research Assistant
Xi Yang, Doctoral Student and Graduate Employee