By: DONNA REIFSNIDER
Bowie Blade-News, 10/11/01
On Sept. 17, a six-member jury awarded a former employee of the University of Maryland $250,000 in damages after she was fired for being "too direct."
Her attorney, Linda Hitt Thatcher of Mitchellville, said the jury deliberated less than an hour following a six-day civil trial in Prince George's County heard by Judge Sherrie Krauser.
Jeanne Hartig charged that the university and her supervisor, Richard Price, had discriminated against her on the basis of her gender.
She also made a claim of defamation of character against the Maryland state treasurer.
According to court documents, after a national search by the university, Hartig was hired June 15, 1999 to become director of marketing and communication for the University of Maryland Center for the Performing Arts. Hartig was hired by then-director Jeffrey Babcock, who left several months later.
Richard Price, a history professor at the university, took his position as interim director, and according to Hartig's claim, began to complain he was "personally embarrassed" by Hartig's directness and that she should be "less direct and more discursive."
The suit also alleged that Price told Hartig that the university was "a southern university" with a "plantation-like attitude."
At that time, Hartig was one of two females on the staff.
Thatcher claims in the suit that other male members of the staff contributed to a "sexually hostile work environment."
After Hartig complained to the university about Price's treatment of her, Price fired her on Jan. 15 because of her "working style," the suit states.
Thatcher said in her brief that Price later told the staff he had fired Hartig for "financial improprieties," a statement that was untrue.
Hartig subsequently filed sex discrimination charges with the Prince George's County Human Relations Commission and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC notified her of a right to sue.
Thatcher said Hartig's case is rare because many institutions resolve such matters before they go to trial. "This kind of thing happens every day but the public does not know about it," Thatcher said.
Thatcher, who works exclusively in employment law, said she turns away about 80 percent of the cases that come to her because they cannot be won.
"I was very impressed with (Hartig's) professionalism. I knew she had a strong case," Thatcher said.
"There is nothing wrong with being direct. Men don't get fired for being direct," Thatcher noted.
"I am so grateful to that jury," Hartig said from Florida, "to come back after a six-day trial and deliberate only an hour is a pretty strong statement."
Hartig, 50, said that she regretted the jury had to sit in on a trial that involved an institution as prestigious as the University of Maryland.
"When they fired me, something inside me said this sort of thing just cannot happen at the end of the 20th century," Hartig said.
The University of Maryland is seeking a new trial in the matter.
The damages awarded in the case, if appeals fail, will have to be paid by the Maryland State Comptroller, Richard Dixon.
Thatcher won a suit brought by 14 female members who sued Woodmore Country Club of Mitchellville in 1995. The women won full membership rights, including the same tee times as men, voting rights, and the right to hold stock.
