Whipped Cream Difficulties

Lawrence is on top of the UT Law School dean resignation story, but there’s one aspect of this story that troubles me.

From the Statesman:

UT records obtained by the American-Statesman under the Texas Public Information Act show that a number of law professors received sizable funds from the foundation, in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Mmmmmkay. The Statesman goes on to quote officials with the Law School as saying that “Every member of the faculty with a named professorship or chair gets summer support and/or a salary supplement from the foundation,” and “Sometimes we help people with mortgage loans and things of that sort.” How many people does this amount to? And where does the foundation get funds?

But here’s the thing that makes me go “Hmmmmm”:

The records show that some faculty and staff members at the law school have complained of being underpaid or discriminated against because of their gender, age or ethnicity. In some of those cases, sizable settlements resulted.

Settlements?

Linda Mullenix , a law professor who complained of “pay discrimination,” received a $20,000 raise and a $250,000 forgivable loan. Laura Castro, who had been a spokeswoman for the law school, received $101,292, the honorific title of “visiting scholar” and use of an office for a year.

So was the Law School underpaying people and engaging in discriminatory behavior (or at least, giving people reason to believe such a thing was going on)? And were they using money from this fund to pay off people who otherwise would have sued? Because that’s sure the implication I get from the word “settlement”; that this money was going to folks who otherwise would have gone to court.

If my reading of this isn’t too far off base, it strikes me as being even sleazier than the forgivable $500,000 loan to the dean.