Judge awards UT Arlington professor $422K after retaliation, sex-based harassment verdict

A federal judge awarded an engineering professor $422,327 after a jury in Fort Worth found the University of Texas at Arlington retaliated against her and failed to act promptly to address sex-based harassment. 

Haiying Huang, who still works at UTA as a professor in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department, received nearly $200,000 for attorneys fees and costs. The remaining $222,686 consists of the $75,000 jurors awarded Huang in August, plus additional back pay, future lost pay and prejudgment interest. More interest will accrue on eligible amounts until they’re paid. 

In August, the jury found that UTA removed Huang from the associate chair position, which she held between 2022 and 2024, because she had raised concerns about the workload for women faculty members. 

Jurors found Huang’s workload report was protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits sex discrimination and retaliation against employees who report or oppose suspected workplace discrimination. 

Jurors also found that then-department Chair Erian Armanios harassed Huang because of her gender and that UTA failed to take prompt action after learning, or having reason to know, of the harassment. They did not find that Huang’s gender was a factor in her removal. Their $75,000 award included $65,000 in lost pay and benefits and $10,000 for emotional harm.

UTA’s current faculty directory lists Armanios as a professor emeritus. 

U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman’s Oct. 16 judgment awarded Huang $140,000 in front pay, covering five years of income Huang would have earned as associate chair. The administrative role paid $28,000 a year on top of her faculty salary. 

Huang sought front pay for 13 years, until her planned retirement, but Pittman found she had not shown she would have remained associate chair for that long. 

In a sworn affidavit, Huang said front pay is the appropriate remedy as she doesn’t believe that her reinstatement would be workable. She cited the trial record, which showed significant conflict between faculty members and herself. 

“I believe that those facts will render it to be at best a very inhospitable working environment for me, and, in fact, would not be good for UTA, either,” Huang said.

UTA called her claim that departmental relationships were irreparably damaged “disingenuous,” noting that she remained a professor.

Pittman disagreed with UTA about Huang’s ability to return as associate chair. 

“Dr. Huang’s ability to serve as associate chair has been irreparably damaged by the faculty conflict and hostile relationships underlying this case, including the pending complaints between Dr. Huang and other engineering professors she would oversee,” he wrote in the final judgment.

Neither UTA nor Huang’s attorneys responded to the Fort Worth Report’s requests for comment.

Pittman cut the requested attorneys’ fees and costs by 10% because some billing entries did not adequately separate the work performed for Huang from that done for other clients. 

His order also permanently prohibits UTA from further retaliating against Huang or subjecting her to sex-based harassment or discrimination. Huang had sought broader measures, including rescinding findings in several internal investigations and removing a written warning from her personnel file. 

She also wanted outside reviews of UTA’s investigations and her department’s workplace policies, staff training and three years of audits to help prevent further harassment and retaliation. 

Pittman found those requests too broad to remedy what the jury found. 

Huang filed a separate federal lawsuit Sept. 21, alleging further retaliation and sex discrimination, including in UTA’s selection of a permanent department chair. Neither the August jury nor Pittman’s Oct. 16 judgment dealt with those allegations. 

Dang Le is the higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at [email protected]. 

The Fort Worth Report partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

The Report’s higher education coverage is supported in part by major higher education institutions in Tarrant County, including Tarleton State University, Tarrant County College, Texas A&M-Fort Worth Christian University, Texas Wesleyan University, the University of Texas at Arlington and UNT Health Fort Worth. 

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