WSU settles with pregnant professor who sued over retracted job offer
Wichita State University has agreed to pay $50,000 to an Ohio professor who claims school officials retracted a job offer when she told them she was pregnant.
Evangeline Heiliger sued the university in December after she says it withdrew an offer to hire her for an assistant professor of women’s studies position a day after she revealed to Center for Women’s Studies director Chinyere Okafor that she was expecting a baby and asked about campus childcare options.
Heiliger, then a 41-year-old visiting assistant professor of gender, sexuality and feminist studies at Ohio’s Oberlin College, applied for the WSU job in late 2017, and interviewed in person on Feb. 23, 2018. She was offered the job and told Okafor about her pregnancy during a March 15, 2018, phone call.
A day later, then-department head Ron Matson answered an email from Heiliger expressing her excitement to start the job by telling her that she’d been removed from consideration, her lawsuit says.
He ignored a follow-up email from Heiliger that said she “was available and eager to begin the position,” according to the suit.
WSU general counsel David Moses told The Eagle earlier this year that an administrative agency investigation concluded the university didn’t violate any laws and that the school “remains committed to creating a fair and equitable workplace.”
Court records show that Heiliger and WSU agreed to settle the lawsuit following a seven-hour mediation session in May.
In exchange for the $50,000 payment, Heiliger agreed to voluntarily dismiss her lawsuit and never again apply for employment with WSU, according to a settlement agreement released by the university last week. The agreement also bars her from discussing or commenting on the settlement or her pregnancy discrimination claims.
Heiliger’s attorney, Larry Michel, declined to comment on the agreement. Messages seeking comment from WSU weren’t immediately returned.
This story was originally published July 31, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
