Will gender equity hearing on Tuesday get results?

The State Senate will hold a hearing on gender equity in California's public universities Tuesday, and the big question is whether something substantive will come out of the session. If it's just theatrics, I hope the hearing is very short. We don't need political grandstanding. Gender discrimination remains a huge problem, as we have found at Fresno State, and this hearing could be useful if it comes up with real solutions.

It won't help if Fresno State and California State University officials continue to say there isn't a problem. That's been their public stance so far, and it's become very tiresome. No one believes that's true, and I don't think they believe it themselves.

CSU Chancellor Charles Reed and Fresno State President John Welty should go to the hearing prepared to say how they are going to fix the problem, and not say everything is fine. Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, the committee chairman, should ask tough, probing questions, but not use the hearing to play gotcha.

Florez, D-Shafter, asked for the committee to be established after a Fresno County Superior Court jury awarded former Fresno State volleyball coach Lindy Vivas $5.85 million in her discrimination suit against the university. Fresno State faces two other discrimination suits in the coming months. Vivas will also testify at the Sacramento hearing.

This hearing has taken on added significance because of a huge gender-equity settlement in the UC system. Karen Moe Humphreys, a former Olympic gold medal swimmer, will receive more than $3.5 million to settle her discrimination case against UC Berkeley. Do you think the UC Regents had the Vivas settlement on their minds when they agreed to settle the case with Moe, who was a coach and administrator at UC Berkeley?

These cases aren't isolated incidents and the taxpayers are on the hook for millions of dollars because university officials allow discrimination against women. We should fix this because it's the right thing to do. But if that isn't reason enough for our leaders, they should be concerned about paying out so much money in lawsuits.