A Terry College professor, who was found in violation of the non-discrimination and anti-harassment policy, reached a settlement agreement with the University in which she stands to make hundreds of thousands of dollars in added salary and retirement benefits.

Barbara Carroll, an associate professor in marketing and distribution, had her salary increase from $87,660 in 2007 to $144,667 in 2008 despite findings from the University’s Office of Legal Affairs that she “unfairly attacked and harassed” her Asian co-workers, according to documents obtained by The Red & Black.

The settlement agreement, release and covenant not to sue, was signed in January by Carroll, Terry College Dean Robert T. Sumichrast and University Provost Arnett Mace, and allows Carroll to maintain her upgraded salary until Jan. 1, 2011, when she will retire after 25 years with the University.

Retirement benefits paid to faculty “are based upon a formula which considers the monthly average of the member’s highest 24 consecutive calendar months of salary,” according to the University.

Because Carroll’s $57,000 salary increase will be in effect for 36 months, she can receive thousands of dollars more a month in retirement benefits. On top of the salary hike, Carroll is also allotted seven days annual leave and allowed to “engage in research activities from locations other than campus,” according to the agreement.

Efforts to reach Sumichrast and Carroll were unsuccessful. Mace declined to comment at this time.

The agreement comes to light as the University finds itself having to cut at least 6 percent of its budget to meet economic demands.

“I think (her salary increase) speaks for itself,” said Richard Fox, interim department head of marketing and distribution. “It’s a big jump . I don’t have to comment on the magnitude of it.”

The hostility stemmed from accusations made by Carroll that Rajiv Grover, then-department head of marketing and distribution, and Srinivas Reddy, director for the center of marketing studies, favored “Asians as new tenure-track hires,” according to documents.

“Both of these powerful people in our department are Asians,” Carroll wrote to the OLA. “And since these two men ‘took power’ in our department, all new American hires are much lower-paid ‘teaching fellows.’”

“Many of the holdover Americans who have given years of service to this department in terms of research and teaching are paid dramatically less than Asians performing the same work,” she wrote.

In summer 2007, the University investigated her claims that Grover and Reddy were “biased in favor of Asians in the hiring/pay process.” Legal Affairs officials reviewed employment offers to tenure-track candidates, publication records for faculty, salary information and e-mails by Carroll to co-workers.

The investigation found no truth to Carroll’s claims, but after interviewing a “number of individuals that felt they had been publicly and unfairly attacked and harassed” by Carroll, the office found her in violation of the anti-harassment code.

Individuals said Carroll attacked them based on their “national origin” and told investigators her behavior “created a disruptive, harmful, hostile and intimidating work environment,” according to a letter from S. Elizabeth Bailey, associate director for Legal Affairs.

Carroll was told to attend non-discrimination training and end hostile comments about co-workers.

Grover left his position as department head in summer 2007, shortly before the investigation was finalized, to serve as a dean at the University of Memphis. He declined to comment Friday afternoon.

Terry College faculty knew of the investigation, but the details of Carroll’s settlement were “handled privately,” said Fox, who took over following Grover’s resignation.

“It wasn’t like it happened in front of everybody’s eyes,” Fox said. “I think there may have been an e-mail that made reference to the fact that (Carroll) was in the wrong.”

Fox said he received no complaints from faculty about Carroll.

“I had no party to that agreement. I don’t know what (the administration’s) thinking was behind it … or the logic behind it,” Fox said.

Carroll continues to teach, though her schedule was limited to two three-hour undergraduate courses last spring and four three-hour undergraduate courses this academic year, according to the settlement.

The University budgets about 3 percent for faculty pay raises each year. Fox said the amount has been “very small” in recent years, with Terry College professors receiving raises between 2 to 3.5 percent, leaving “very little money to distribute.”

As for how the University plans to pay Carroll, Fox said, “I don’t know.”