Professor Emerit Jennifer Freyd and the University of Oregon are pleased to announce that we have settled our lawsuit after more than four years of litigation. Under the settlement, the University will pay Prof. Freyd and her attorneys $350,000 to cover her claims for damages as well as attorney’s fees over the four years of litigation. In addition, the University will make a $100,000 donation to the Center for Institutional Courage, the foundation founded by Prof. Freyd dedicated to scientific research and action promoting institutional courage.

We are pleased to put this litigation behind us and together affirm our continued commitment to uncover, acknowledge, and address gender inequity and other forms of discrimination.

To this joint statement I add a few reflections.

First, it is particularly meaningful to me that part of the settlement was for the University of Oregon to provide a $100,000 donation to Courage. And also that this has generated some good press for Courage such as a feature article, “Why Are Colleges So Cowardly?"

I hope we see more settlements structured in this way – committing financial resources to Courage – as the funding helps us achieve goals that are in line with those of many plaintiffs and civil rights attorneys. Our nonprofit is a research and educational organization that has a mission to provide new research on institutional betrayal, institutional courage, DARVO, and other concepts. These concepts are increasingly being used both in civil rights lawsuits to hold institutions accountable and by institutions to become more courageous. It would be meaningful to me, and helpful on a practical level, to have support from for-profit civil rights law firms either through donation and/or through structuring settlements that include a donation to Courage as part of reparations. With such funding, we will be able to further our research and education mission, which will in turn be helpful to those seeking justice and equity.

Second, by preserving the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision regarding my lawsuit, the greatest value of the settlement for me is what it can mean for equity and equality in academia and beyond.

The Ninth Circuit’s decision establishes an important precedent in two ways. It affirms the applicability of the Equal Pay Act to academic and professional jobs. The Ninth Circuit opinion also affirms that when employer practices like retention raises result in lower salaries for women, these practices may violate the law, even if the discriminatory outcome was unintentional (relevant to Title VII, disparate impact). The importance of this appeals court precedent has been noted in over two dozen publications.

Third, I am grateful to my attorneys and to the many other attorneys and organizations around the country that supported, through amicus briefs and other mechanisms, our efforts to pursue justice and equity for women in this country.

I am also deeply appreciative of the support from my students and colleagues at the University of Oregon and around the country, who have provided me much support while courageously speaking out about and confronting inequity and injustice.

In closing, I’m excited that in this issue of The Courage Brief, Research Associate Melissa Barnes writes about her ground-breaking doctoral dissertation research and theory regarding gendered and racialized police violence.

Thank you for being with us on this journey, and with appreciation,

The nation held an unofficial day of remembrance for George Floyd on May 25th, one year after he was murdered. If we held a day of honor for all of the Black men, women, transgender, and nonbinary folks who have been physically or sexually assaulted by police officers, we would mourn and remember every day of the year. On March 30th, we would mourn Mya Hall; July 13th would be Sandra Bland’s day; August 9th would honor Abner Louima; and at least 13 days would be reserved for each of Daniel Holtzclaw’s sexual assault victims.

I explored the theory of Collective Ongoing Betrayal Trauma with an experiment involving 1,270 Black Americans. Results of this study were, in many ways, consistent with what I predicted. Collective Ongoing Betrayal Trauma can be a useful concept to further our understanding of the negative consequences that stem from police physical and sexual violence. I invite interested readers to see the abstract for this project.

Institutions can participate in many institutionally courageous acts to intervene on police violence. Those with institutional power can bear witness, be accountable, and genuinely apologize for historical and current police violence. Third-party entities can demand increased transparency from police departments about the actual frequency of physical and sexual violence incidents. Institutions could also commit long-term resources to the tireless call for defunding, or reallocating funds from, law enforcement and the prison system to public health services.

Our research on Collective Ongoing Betrayal Trauma can help progress #blacklivesmatter, #sayhername, and #saytheirnames by 1) recognizing the significant negative impact of indirect exposure to physical and sexual police violence and 2) advocating for institutionally courageous acts to intervene on discriminatory police violence.