Professor Sues, Citing Discrimination in Salary Dispute

Black Issues in Higher Education, August 5, 1999

BOULDER, Colo. -- University of Colorado Spanish Professor Luis Gonzalez-del-Valle, whose $102,672 annual salary is the highest in his department, has fried a discrimination lawsuit against the school and Peter Spear, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, seeking more than $825,000.

The suit, fried in district court, alleges Gonzalez-del-Valle's career was ruined because he is Cuban. It claims Gonzalez-del-Valle and Spear tangled over issues that concern the college's Spanish and Portuguese Department in 1996. It seeks $525,000 in lost wages and opportunities and $300,000 in damages, plus attorneys' fees.

Funding for the department was cut by $100,000 as part of a campuswide budget-tightening plan, and Gonzalez-del-Valle was denied summer pay he had been promised and a salary adjustment he felt was due him. Gonzalez-del-Valle's suit says his efforts to get a new job elsewhere stalled when people called the university for references. He served as chairman of the department until the end of 1998.

Despite his six-figure salary, the suit says compensation guidelines indicate Gonzalez-del-Valle's salary is almost $30,000 below what it should be.