The Red and Black

Issue date: 9/23/08 Section: News

CARROLL

Settlement agreement

Office of Legal Affairs documents

A Terry College associate professor said Monday she sees a "disparity" between her salary and others in her department even after she reached a settlement granting her a 65 percent pay increase.

"What is really key here is not the absolute dollar pay for one faculty member," Barbara Carroll wrote in an e-mail to The Red & Black, "but (my) pay relative to others of the same/lower rank ... performing duties similar to (my) own."

In a 2007 complaint to the Office of Legal Affairs, Carroll said Rajiv Grover, then-department head of marketing and distribution, and Srinivas Reddy, director for the center of marketing studies, favored "Asians as new tenure-track hires," and that American employees "are paid dramatically less," according to documents obtained by The Red & Black in an open records request.

Though Legal Affairs found no fault within Terry College, Carroll was later found in violation of the non-discrimination and anti-harassment policy when individuals said she "publicly and unfairly attacked and harassed" them, according to documents.

Carroll signed a settlement agreement, release and covenant not to sue with Terry College Dean Robert T. Sumichrast and University Provost Arnett Mace in January that raised her $87,660 annual salary to $144,667 for the next three years. Upon her retirement in January 2011, Carroll stands to gain hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary and benefits.

Of the professors listed in the legal affairs investigation, Carroll's salary was the lowest. In 2007, Carroll, who has been employed by the University since 1986, was paid $87,660. She studied at universities in Mississippi, Kentucky and Indiana.

Piyush Kumar, who is also an associate professor in marketing and distribution, made $235,910 the same year. Kumar was hired by Terry College in 2005 and studied at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India.

Rex Du and Vanessa Patrick, both assistant professors in marketing and distribution, made $155,590 and $160,111, respectively. Du studied at China Europe International Business School in Shanghai before he was hired in 2005. Patrick, who was hired in 2004, studied at Bombay University.

Roberto Friedmann, an associate professor who has worked at Terry College since 1984, made $111,923 in 2007. Friedmann, who was not listed in the investigation, studied at the University of Kansas.

"The raise ... still leaves me below each of these three professors," Carroll wrote in an e-mail to The Red & Black.

"(Patrick, Du and Kumar) have made dramatically more than I each year since their hire," she wrote. "This has been the situation for years and years."

But faculty salaries differ based on factors such as productivity and evaluations, said Richard Fox, who served as interim-department head of marketing following the investigation.

Attempts to reach Patrick and Kumar were unsuccessful. In an e-mail to The Red & Black, Du wrote, "The facts will speak for themselves" and declined to comment further.

"(My raise) simply brought my 12-month salary in a range comparable others, " Carroll said.

Online comments to Monday's story in The Red & Black on Carroll's settlement with Terry College left the professor in fear for her "personal safety."

"The posts full of hatred and name-calling make me very concerned," she wrote in an e-mail Monday. "(The article) is not the full story ... and has left many with the impression that I am a racist, the grand wizard, and/or I blew someone to get this raise."

"I am not a racist," she wrote. "All I have ever wanted from UGA is pay comparable to others of my same or lower rank, performing duties comparable to my own (e.g., research and teaching), regardless of race, sex, or age. As I understand it, this is what equal pay laws are all about."

"While it does not make up for my dramatically lower pay for many years," she said, "It does allow me to retire with a pension comparable to others of my same/lower rank and was an upward adjustment sufficient for me to sign a covenant not to sue."

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