State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, just sent me an email confirming that his hearing on gender equity and Title IX compliance in the California's public universities will begin at 10 a.m. Tuesday. The hearing is in response to the $5.85 million verdict against Fresno State in the Lindy Vivas discrimination case.

The Senate wants to determine if there's widespread violations of gender-equity laws that could put the state in jeopardy of paying out similar amounts. Florez is chairman of the comittee.

The hearing will be in Room 3191 of State Capitol. It will be carried on the Cal Channel, according to Florez. He said witnesses will include Fresno State President John Welty and Charles B. Reed, chancellor of the California State University system. Vivas also is expected to testify.

Other committee members are Sens. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Rosa, and Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento.

The committee will have a lot of material to consider. This is from today's Los Angeles Times:

Karen Moe Humphreys, a former Olympic gold medal swimmer who became a coach and administrator at UC Berkeley, will receive more than $3.5 million to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit she brought against the university, the UC Board of Regents agreed Thursday.

Humphreys, who worked at UC Berkeley from 1978 until she was laid off in 2004, alleged that she lost her job in retaliation for complaining about the treatment of women by the university's athletic department.

Under the agreement, Humphreys will be reinstated and then retire in January when she reaches 30 years with the university. She said the $3.5 million will go entirely to cover her attorney fees and legal costs.