Attorneys for Pomona College want a judge to keep confidential the identities of 17 students who wrote letters that were considered by the school in a decision to deny tenure to a former theater professor who had role in the F/X series “The Bridge” and the 1981 movie “Zoot Suit.”
The school’s lawyers say in court papers filed March 17 that turning such information over to Alma Martinez’s lawyers would violate the privacy rights of current and former students.
A hearing is scheduled Friday before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ernest Hiroshige.
“(Martinez) has a right to prosecute her case, but not without regard to the privacy rights of students who participated in the tenure review process under express promises of confidentiality…,” the school’s attorneys state in their court papers.
Martinez, 61, sued Claremont-based Pomona College in August 2013, alleging she lost her job as assistant professor of theater because she is a Latina. The complaint alleges wrongful termination as well as national origin and gender discrimination.
According to the lawsuit, Martinez was employed by the college for about six years. In September 2011, the school’s Department of Theatre and Dance recommended that she be promoted to associate professor with tenure, the suit states.
Martinez had the qualifications needed for the upgrade in her employment status but, in January 2013, she was denied tenure and told she would be fired, according to her court papers, which say her last day at the school was June 30, 2013.
Martinez’s lawyers filed a motion to obtain letters of evaluation from Martinez’s former students and similar student letters evaluating all other tenure candidates at Pomona College from 2000 forward. The school solicited letters from students who took her classes dating back to her last promotion review in 2008.
“There may be evidence that (Pomona College) relied upon letters from students who received poor grades in their course (work) with plaintiff, were overlooked for a lead role or other reasons that would provide context to its letter,” Martinez’s lawyers wrote.
Attorneys for the school state in their court papers that they provided the plaintiff’s lawyers with edited versions of the letters that protect the students’ privacy and do not reveal their names.
“Revealing the identities of authors of such letters of evaluation would have a profound chilling effect on the college’s tenure review process and neither students nor faculty would participate, or at least would not provide the candid feedback that is essential to the process,” according to the court papers submitted by the Pomona College lawyers.
Mark Wood, senior director of communications for Pomona College, previously released a statement in response to the lawsuit.
“Pomona College has one of the most diverse faculties, in terms of both gender and race, of any college of its type in the country,” Wood said. “The tenure review process at Pomona is designed to be both exhaustive and fair.”
Martinez, who played Sgt. Elizabeth Cruz in “The New Adam-12” TV series that ran from 1989-91, holds a doctorate in drama from Stanford University. She is being represented in her lawsuit by lawyers from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
— City News Service