Minorities, Women and the University

When Judge Samuel Adams '50 ruled last Monday that Harvard does not have to keep Robin Sing working as a Gund Hall librarian--a position she was formally discharged from February 18--he made his decision on the only basis the law allowed him: that Sing had not been fired because of sex discrimination.

Adams, presiding in Middlesex County Superior Court, had no jurisdiction over whether the quality of Sing's work entitled her to continue working beyond her 90-day probationary period as a University employee--that is a matter, according to law, that must be decided between the University and Sing.

Sing was hired to work at Gund Hall beginning January 2, and was fired February 18, Court documents outlining the University's reasons for the firing allege a "combination" of factors, including absences, inability to follow instructions, inaccurate work and "excessive numbers of personal phone calls and visitors during working hours."

Sing denied the charges, and won a preliminary injunction against Harvard on February 8, which allowed her to keep her job while the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination investigated her allegations. Sing said she was fired mainly for two days of absences connected with looking after her four-year-old child. Because of this, Sing and her attorney, Peggy S. Rigg, claimed that her dismissal was the result of a "sexual stereotype."

But in refusing Sing's request for a continuation of the injunction last week, Adams decided that even if Sing missed only two days of work--which Sing admitted--that fact alone could constitute reasons for her firing unrelated to any type of discrimination.