Mary Kay Switzer and a Class Action Suit that Got Results

I am thankful for the result of a class action suit I set up for women faculty at our university in Minnesota. (In answer to the state chancellor’s call to let faculty go, our university let only female professors go. Because our institution received federal funding, I launched this suit.) No lawyer would touch the case. I contacted Senator Mondale and Eliot Richardson, then head of HEW, and enlisted my mother’s help. She was state president of Federated Women’s Clubs in neighboring South Dakota. She wrote these men on her letterhead. Then we got action. We each received an “out of court” settlement. I used this money to get my Ph.D. in 1980. The other women put their funds to similar good uses.

As the money was slow in coming, I contacted a Minnesota state senator I’d campaigned for and supported financially. (He was a former student of mine who became the youngest mayor in the nation and the youngest state senator. He was in my Parliamentary Procedure class and applied all his knowledge well. I was District Head of the DFL and State Parliamentarian at the Minnesota State Convention at the time.) He saw to it that we got our money within a week after contacting him. It pays to cast your bread!
______

I feel good about finding a semi-conscious, elderly stranger, who turned out to be a neighbor, in my alley and helping her regain her independence. One of my former students–again–followed in the footsteps of St. Francis and helped the poor and ill. I got the funds to bring him into her life and help her with physical therapy, etc. Though she lost a leg, she learned to walk and take care of herself through this help. Another cast your bread story!
__________

Many of my students went on to influence and help others. I started a television program for Middle Schools in California. Many of my former TV students put this TV model into effect. We won awards and recognition for the program.

Meet Mary Kay Switzer
An associate professor in the communications department at California Polytechnic State University in Pomona, Calif. and former news anchor, Mary Kay has won teaching excellence awards at two institutions. She serves on many national boards in higher education. Mary Kay has served on the Academic Senate and the Academic Senate Steering Committee at her university. She even chaired the Instructional Support Services Standing Committee of the Academic Senate. In 1997, she received a Distinguished Service Award for her contributions and service on these committees.

Mary Kay has served as Chair of the Department Assessment Committee and the Department Budget Committee. Recently, she served as an elected member of the College Retention, Tenure, and Promotion Committee for a three-year term. She is also a highly successful grant writer, curriculum developer and author and is involved in television and video production. She has been twice recognized by California State Polytechnic University Pomona with the “Golden Leaves Award,” once for her work as a contributing author of a major scholarly reference work, Historical Dictionary of American Radio, published by Greenwood Press in 1998, and most recently for her book, China Diary.

Her broadcast experience includes News Anchor, Public Affairs Director, and News Director for several major television-radio affiliates. Her awards in this area include Freedom Foundation and Emmy Awards. Her successful tennis program, “Strokes and Strategies” — running for over seven years — was a feature of ASPN (pay TV sports network).

Mary Kay been involved with AWC since 1983 and served on the AWC National Board of Directors from 1997-2003. In recent years, she returned to the AWC National Board where she serves today.