About an hour before the final Rutgers University board of governors meeting for 2021, Rutgers AAUP-AFT professors on Dec. 7 spoke at length about pay equity and fairness concerns during a virtual press conference.
Here are choice comments from two of the speakers:
“No matter how much evidence we may marshal, no matter how many awards we may receive, gender and race discrimination gets in the way of pay equity. … Rutgers recently renamed a building in honor of the late [Supreme Court] Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was part of our law school faculty. What was not highlighted at this naming ceremony was that Justice Ginsburg was part of a class-action lawsuit for pay discrimination. She and her colleagues at Rutgers won their lawsuit and received substantial pay raises. … If Rutgers is really serious about honoring Justice Ginsburg, if it is serious about diversity, equity and inclusion, President [Jonathan] Holloway needs to work with the union to bring about real pay equity.” — Dr. Deepa Kumar (above), journalism and media professor at Rutgers-New Brunswick and one of five plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed in October 2020 accusing Rutgers of pay inequity
“The inequities at Rutgers go far beyond faculty pay. [It’s important] that we understand the fight for pay equity [is] part of a broader struggle for the recognition and resources that Rutgers-Camden deserves. So beyond professor salaries, this is a struggle about the longstanding systemic devaluing of the Camden campus and community. … To say that Camden faculty are worth less is to say that this place and these people are worth less.” — Dr. Kate Cairns, associate professor of childhood studies at Rutgers-Camden