Full opinion text
MEMORANDUM ORDER PATRICK E. HIGGINBOTHAM, District Judge. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. History of Case 230 II. Class Reevaluation 233 A. “Across-the-Board” Suits 234 B. EEOC Charges by Intervenors 237 C. Class Redefinition 238 III. The Bank and Its History 242 IV. Bank Personnel Policy 243 A. Personnel Division and Hiring 243 B. Affirmative Action ' 247 C. Categorization of Employees 248 V. Statistical Evidence 251 A. Sources of the Data 251 B. Problems with the Data 255 1. Plaintiffs’ Challenges 256 2. The Bank’s Challenges 256 C. Technical and Institutional Competence 258 D. The “Anecdotal Evidence” 259 VI. The Theory Behind the Parties’ Mathematical Modeling 261 A. Introduction 261 B. Job Relatedness and Equal Treatment 262 C. Controlling for Productivity 265 D. The Mathematics of Regression Analysis 267 1. Uses of Multiple Regression 267 2. Econometrics and the Ordinary Least Squares Form of Multiple Regression Analysis 268 a. Estimating Multiple Regressions 269 b. Statistical Inference 271 3. What Can Go Wrong? 273 E. Econometric Indication of Discrimination 275 TABLE OF CONTENTS — Continued VII. Compensation 279 A. The Legal Standard for Compensation Discrimination 279 B. Compensation Data 285 1. Plaintiffs’ Models 285 2. The Bank’s Models 299 C. Applying the Law to the Data 304 D. Summary 319 VIII. Initial Placement and Promotion Analysis 319 A. The Data Presented 319 1. Plaintiffs’ Data 320 2. The Bank’s Data 331 B. Applying the Law to the Data 338 1. Black and Female Nonexempts 339 2. Female Exempts 342 3. Black Exempts 343 C. Summary 344 IX. Hiring 344 A. Statistical Inference 345 B. Plaintiffs’ Case: The Data 350 C. Plaintiffs’ Case: The Legal Standards 354 D. Plaintiffs’ Case: Applying the Law to the Data 357 E. The Bank’s Case: The Data 362 F. The Bank’s Case: The Legal Standards 369 1. Occuptional and Educational Weights 369 2. Geographical Weights 375 G. The Bank’s Case: Applying the Law to the Data ■ 376 H. Summary 385 X. - Terminations 385 XI. Terms and Conditions 386 A. Departmental Segregation 386 B. Maternity Leave 389 C. Marriage Policy 392 D. Training 392 E. Dress 393 F. Summary 393 CONCLUSION 394 This order constitutes the court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law entered after a five-week trial to the court on the Phase I liability issues of a class action race and sex discrimination case under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq. (“Title VII”). For the sake of clarity, and so that this opinion may stand as a self-contained unit, the facts and procedural history of the case will be set forth in full. I. History of the Case Plaintiff Joan Ranee Vuyanich, a black female, was first employed with defendant Republic National Bank (“the Bank” or “Republic”) on April 28, 1969, as an agent contact clerk in the Money Order Department. She was then the only black employee of her department. Soon after her arrival, she began to have problems with two white female co-workers, whom Ms. Vuyanich believed to be shouldering less than a fair share of the workload. Complaints to her supervisor resulted (in her view) in only temporary improvement. On June 29,1969, Ms. Vuyanich married a white male whom she had met during previous employment. Her supervisors first met her new husband approximately one month later. A few days after this introduction, Ms. Vuyanich was called to her supervisor’s office and told that there was a clash of personalities between herself and her co-workers, that the complaints about the workload were her fault, that she was not suitable for the job, and that she should resign. When asked about a transfer, her supervisor replied that Ms. Vuyanich probably did not need a job anymore since her husband was white. Ms. Vuyanich was discharged from the Bank on July 28, 1969. On August 13,1969, Ms. Vuyanich filed a charge against the Bank with the Austin Regional Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”), setting forth the above events and charging the Bank with violation of Title VII. On May 23, 1972, the Dallas District Director of the EEOC issued his findings of fact, in which he found, inter alia, that Vuyanich’s supervisor had discharged her instead of taking other steps to resolve the racially motivated personality conflict between her and her co-workers. A determination of reasonable cause to believe that a violation of Title VII had occurred was issued on November 6, 1972. Conciliation efforts were unsuccessful, and on March 6,1973, the EEOC issued a statutory right-to-sue letter. On March 22,1973, three years and eight months after her discharge, Ms. Vuyanich filed the first of these two consolidated actions. Plaintiff Ellen Johnson, a black female, applied for a job at the Bank on September 23, 1971. Ms. Johnson was a 1971 graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington with a major in government. She first applied for a position as a management trainee or in personnel administration, but was told that no such positions were available. She then expressed her willingness to accept any position available; she was not offered a position of any kind. On October 15, 1971, Ms. Johnson filed a discrimination charge with the Dallas District Office of the EEOC. This charge alleged across-the-board race and sex discrimination by the Bank with respect to hiring, recruiting, job requirements, training, promotion, and personnel rules. On August 14,1973, the District Director issued a determination of reasonable cause with respect to most of these allegations. On November 1, 1973, the EEOC issued a right-to-sue letter, and on December 3, 1973, the second of the present actions was filed. The procedural history of these cases is complex, the Vuyanich case having been assigned at one time or another to five different judges of this court. The first significant event in the cases took place on November 7, 1974, when Judge Mahon conditionally certified the Vuyanich case as a class action on behalf of female and black employees and potential employees of the Bank who were adversely affected by the practices alleged by Ms. Vuyanich. Except for sporadic discovery activities, the cases remained dormant until March 12, 1976. On that date, Judge Mahon consolidated the Vuyanich and Johnson cases for discovery purposes. Judge Mahon also granted plaintiffs’ motions to strike the Bank’s jury demand, basing his decision on Curtis v. Loether, 415 U.S. 189, 94 S.Ct. 1005, 39 L.Ed.2d 260 (1974), and Johnson v. Georgia Highway Express, Inc., 417 F.2d 1122 (5th Cir. 1969). At the same time, he denied the Bank’s motion to strike Ms. Vuyanich’s allegations of sex discrimination, holding her EEOC charge sufficient under Sanchez v. Standard Brands, Inc., 431 F.2d 455 (5th Cir. 1970), and Gamble v. Birmingham Southern Railroad, 514 F.2d 678 (5th Cir. 1975), to support claims both of race and sex discrimination. Vuyanich, supra n.1, 409 F.Supp. at 1086-90. On March 15,1978, the cases having been transferred to the present judge, the class status of the cases was updated and redefined. Based on statistical evidence presented at a two-day hearing, the court certified a class consisting of: All females of all races and all blacks of either sex; 1) who are or have been employed by the Republic National Bank on or after February 16, 1969, and 2) who applied for employment but were not hired at the Republic National Bank on or after February 16, 1969 to date. Vuyanich, supra n.l, 78 F.R.D. at 354. At the same time, the court consolidated the cases for all purposes. Trial of the so-called “Phase I liability” issues, see Swint v. Pullman-Standard, Inc., 539 F.2d 77, 94 (5th Cir. 1976); Baxter v. Savannah Sugar Refining Corp., 495 F.2d 437, 443-44 (5th Cir. 1974), cert, denied, 419 U.S. 1033, 95 S.Ct. 515, 42 L.Ed.2d 308 (1975), was severed from trial of individual damage issues. In early 1979, the court conducted a further hearing for the purpose of refining the class definition. Both sides presented sophisticated statistical analyses in support of their respective positions. On April 25, 1979, the court reaffirmed its earlier class certification order, dividing the original class into five subclasses. The court simultaneously approved requests for designation of three class members as additional class representatives. These three new class representatives have been referred to as intervenors. The five certified subclasses are as follows: Subclass Subclass Subclass Representative(s) Attorney(s) black and female exempt Ellen Johnson Linda Coffee with employees Marjorie Lee Jackson Joann Peters female nonexempt employees Marisu Fenton Richard Arnold black nonexempt employees Joan Vuyanich Dorothy Hooks Joann Peters with Linda Coffee unsuccessful black and female Ellen Johnson Linda Coffee with applicants for exempt positions Joann Peters unsuccessful black applicants Ellen Johnson Linda Coffee with for nonexempt positions Joann Peters The employee subclasses include employees who have worked for the Bank during the period from February 16, 1969, to the date of trial. The applicant subclasses include those who applied for positions at the Bank during the period from February 16, 1969, to the date of trial. The Phase I trial commenced on October 15, 1979. In the course of 24 days of testimony, the court heard from over three dozen witnesses and received thousands of exhibits into evidence. Ten of these witnesses were experts in the fields of computer science, statistics, business, or economics. The testimony of these experts, together with their written reports, forms the evidentiary base for the statistical analyses at the heart of plaintiffs’ case and the Bank’s rebuttal of that case. II. Class Reevaluation Before turning to substantive issues, we deal with posttrial challenges by the Bank to the status of this case as a class action. Although the issues of class certification have already been considered repeatedly and exhaustively, see n.l, supra, the court has a continuing duty to reevaluate class status on the basis of events which transpire and circumstances which develop as the litigation unfolds. E. g., Guerine v. J & W Investment, Inc., 544 F.2d 863, 864 (5th Cir. 1977); Cooper v. University of Texas, 482 F.Supp. 187, 190 (N.D.Tex.1979), appeal docketed, No. 80-1412 (5th Cir. Apr. 15,1980). This reevaluation process is complex, and will be discussed in detail in due course. The spokes of all the Bank’s challenges to the class as it is now structured run in the final analysis to a central hub. That hub is an attack on the maintainability of so-called “across-the-board” suits. We turn then to their role in the evolving framework of Title VII class action litigation. A. “Across-the-Board” Suits. The concept of an “across-the-board” class action, i. e., an action challenging a wide range of employment practices alleged to result from a common discriminatory animus, owes its origin to Johnson v. Georgia Highway Express, Inc., 417 F.2d 1122 (5th Cir. 1969). The Fifth Circuit in Johnson reversed a ruling by the trial court that a discharged black employee could only represent other discharged black employees. The court found such a limitation to be error “as it is clear from the pleadings that the scope of appellant’s suit is an ‘across-the-board’ attack on unequal employment practices alleged to have been committed by the appellee pursuant to its policy of racial discrimination.” 417 F.2d at 1124. Noting the “Damoclean threat of a racially discriminatory policy,” Hall v. Werthan Bag Corp., 251 F.Supp. 184,186 (N.D.Tenn.1966), hanging over the entire racial group, the court held that the plaintiff could represent all black employees of the defendant in their claims of alleged discrimination in hiring, firing, promotion, and maintenance of facilities. 417 F.2d at 1124. The Johnson decision received continued support in Fifth Circuit Title VII jurisprudence. Thus in Carr v. Conoco Plastics, Inc., 423 F.2d 57 (5th Cir.), cert, denied, 400 U.S. 951, 91 S.Ct. 241, 27 L.Ed.2d 257 (1970), a group of black employees was permitted to maintain an “across-the-board” suit challenging hiring and internal personnel policies. In Jack v. American Linen Supply Co., 498 F.2d 122 (5th Cir. 1974), the court held that a former employee could properly represent a class of present and future employees. Similarly, in Long v. Sapp, 502 F.2d 34 (5th Cir. 1974), the court, reaffirming Johnson, held that a terminated employee could challenge racially discriminatory policies allegedly “pervad[ing] all aspects of the employment practices of” her former employer: Having shown herself to be a black and a former employee .. . she occupies the position of one she says is suffering from the alleged discrimination. She has demonstrated the necessary nexus with the proposed class for membership therein. As a person aggrieved, she can represent other victims of the same policies, whether or not all have experienced discrimination in the same way. 502 F.2d at 43. The Fifth Circuit approach, characterized as “pioneering,” Worley v. Western Electric Co., 22 Empl.Prac.Dec. ¶ 30,600, at 14,224-25 (N.D.Ga.1979), received widespread but not universal support in other circuits. The “across-the-board” approach was recognized and approved by the Third Circuit, Wetzel v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., 508 F.2d 239, 247 (3d Cir.), cert, denied, 421 U.S. 1011, 95 S.Ct. 2415, 44 L.Ed.2d 679 (1975), the Fourth Circuit, Barnett v. W. T. Grant Co., 518 F.2d 543, 547-48 (4th Cir. 1975), the Sixth Circuit, Senter v. General Motors Corp., 532 F.2d 511, 523-24 (6th Cir.), cert, denied, 429 U.S. 870, 97 S.Ct. 182, 50 L.Ed.2d 150 (1976); Tipler v. E. I. duPont deNemours & Co., 443 F.2d 125, 130 (6th Cir. 1971), the Eighth Circuit, Donaldson v. Pillsbury Co., 554 F.2d 825, 829-32 (8th Cir.), cert, denied, 434 U.S. 856, 98 S.Ct. 177, 54 L.Ed.2d 128 (1976); Reed v. Arlington Hotel Co., 476 F.2d 721, 722-23 (8th Cir.), cert, denied, 414 U.S. 854, 94 S.Ct. 153, 38 L.Ed.2d 103 (1973); Parham v. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., 433 F.2d 421, 425 (8th Cir. 1970), and a variety of district courts, e. g., Mack v. General Electric Co., 329 F.Supp. 72, 75-76 (E.D.Pa.1971); Wilson v. Monsanto Co., 315 F.Supp. 977, 979 (E.D.La.1970); see Hall v. Werthan Bag Corp., supra (“across-the-board” action as to injunctive relief but not as to back pay). See generally Developments in the Law- Employment Discrimination and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 84 Harv.L. Rev. 1109, 1219-21 (1971). The “across-the-board” approach was rejected in the Tenth Circuit, Taylor v. Safeway Stores, Inc., 524 F.2d 263, 270-71 (10th Cir. 1975), and by a number of district courts, e. g., Tolbert v. Daniel Construction Co., 332 F.Supp. 772, 775 (D.S.C.1971); White v. Gates Rubber Co., 53 F.R.D. 412, 413 (D.Colo.1971); Hyatt v. United Aircraft Corp., 50 F.R.D. 242, 245-47 (D.Conn.1970); Burney v. North American Rockwell Corp., 302 F.Supp. 86, 90-91 (C.D.Cal.1969); Colbert v. H-K Corp., 295 F.Supp. 1091, 1093 (N.D.Ga.1968), vacated on other grounds, 444 F.2d 1381 (5th Cir. 1971). The continuing propriety of “across-the-board” class actions under Title VII was called into question in 1977 by East Texas Motor Freight Systems, Inc. v. Rodriguez, 431 U.S. 395, 97 S.Ct. 1891, 52 L.Ed.2d 453 (1977). In that case, the district court had denied certification of an “across-the-board” suit, and had rejected the named plaintiffs’ claims on their merits after trial. The Fifth Circuit reversed, certifying a class, and itself found classwide liability on the basis of the trial record. The Supreme Court in turn reversed the court of appeals, holding, based upon the failure of the named plaintiffs’ claims, their failure to move for class certification, and their conflicts of interest with members of the class, that the named plaintiffs were not proper class representatives. In this regard, the Court stated: We are not unaware that suits alleging racial or ethnic discrimination are often by their very nature class suits, involving classwide wrongs. Common questions of law or fact are typically present. But careful attention to the requirements of Fed.Rule Civ.Proc. 23 remain nonetheless indispensable. The mere fact that a complaint alleges racial or ethnic discrimination does not in itself ensure the party who has brought the lawsuit will be an adequate representative of those who may have been the real victims of that discrimination. 431 U.S. at 405-06, 97 S.Ct. at 1897-1898. Citing Schlesinger v. Reservists Committee to Stop the War, 418 U.S. 208, 216, 94 S.Ct. 2925, 2929, 41 L.Ed.2d 706 (1974), the Court noted that “a class representative must be part of the class and ‘possess the same interests and suffer the same injury’ as the class members.” 431 U.S. at 403, 97 S.Ct. at 1896. Mirroring the pre-Rodriguez dissension among the circuits, courts are divided on the question of whether “across-the-board” suits survive Rodriguez. In Payne v. Travenol Laboratories, Inc., 565 F.2d 895, 900 (5th Cir.), cert, denied, 439 U.S. 835, 99 S.Ct. 118, 58 L.Ed.2d 131 (1978), the Fifth Circuit, without discussing Rodriguez, stated: Plaintiffs’ action is an “across-the-board” attack on unequal employment practices alleged to have been committed by Travenol pursuant to a policy of racial discrimination. As parties who have allegedly been aggrieved by some of those discriminatory practices, plaintiffs have demonstrated a sufficient nexus to enable them to represent other class members suffering from different practices motivated by the same policies. In Satterwhite v. City of Greenville, supra n.7, the court again stated: Nor is Rodriguez or this opinion contrary to the policy favoring “across-the-board” Title VII class actions. See Johnson v. Ga. Highway Express, supra. It is not necessary that the representative suffer discrimination in the same way as other class members, but it is necessary that she suffer from the discrimination in some respect. 578 F.2d at 993-94 n.8. Finally, in Falcon v. General Telephone Co., 626 F.2d 369 (5th Cir. 1980), the court settled any remaining doubt, holding squarely that “an employee complaining of one employment practice [may] represent another complaining of another practice, if the plaintiff and the members of the class suffer from essentially the same injury.” The Fourth Circuit has reached a contrary result, Hill v. Western Electric Co., 596 F.2d 99 (4th Cir.), cert, denied, 444 U.S. 929, 100 S.Ct. 271, 62 L.Ed.2d 186 (1979); see Vuyanich, supra n.l, 82 F.R.D. at 433 n.8, and district courts are split on the issue. The Payne, Satterwhite and Falcon cases are controlling precedent in this circuit for the proposition that “across-the-board” suits remain appropriate in proper circumstances notwithstanding Rodriguez. Even were the slate clean, however, the factors favoring “across-the-board” suits identified by this court in its earlier order, see Vuyanich, supra n.1, 82 F.R.D. at 432-33, would remain cogent today. The fundamental thesis of “across-the-board” actions remains the existence of a discriminatory animus cutting across a variety of employment practices; where there is substantial evidence that such an animus exists, the class representative “possesses the same interests” in its elimination and “suffers the same injury” from its presence, within the meaning of Rodriguez, as the class members she represents. Whether the direct approach typical of the Fifth Circuit, in which a broad class is certified, or the two-step approach of the Third Circuit, where a narrower class is certified but broader issues examined, see Alexander v. Gino’s, Inc., supra n.10, is employed, an “across-the-board” suit serves to vindicate classwide rights on a classwide basis. Notwithstanding the propriety of “across-the-board” actions in appropriate cases, it must be kept in mind that not every Title VII suit, nor even every Title VII class action, is an “across-the-board” suit. Only where the plaintiff alleges that the particular discrimination she has suffered is due to a racist or sexist animus pervading the defendant’s practices, and only where the plaintiff presents sufficient proof of that allegation at the class certification stage, should an action be certified as an “across-the-board” class action. See Falcon v. General Telephone Co., supra, at 376 n.9. The thrust of this court’s earlier opinion was that the plaintiffs in this case have met that burden. At the class certification stage, the plaintiffs presented statistical evidence showing discrimination in hiring, pay, promotion, and termination. These statistics constituted substantial evidence that discrimination at the Bank, if indeed such discrimination were provable at trial, was the product of a common discriminatory animus characteristic of “across the-board” actions. It was on that basis that this action was so certified. One additional factor, not fully present at the time of the court’s 1979 certification order, counsels in favor of “across-the-board” treatment for this case. The court noted at that time that challenged practices such as promotion, pay, training, testing, transfer, job assignment and classification, job content, and constructive discharge were intertwined. Vuyanich, supra n.l, 82 F.R.D. at 433. What was not then apparent, but which now reinforces the decision to treat this as an “across-the-board” suit, was the fact that much of the statistical proof presented at trial would mirror this intertwined relationship. The introduction of multiple regression econometric studies, discussed more fully in sections VI through VIII, infra, which can in certain circumstances measure discrimination in a wide variety of forms through related statistical tests, suggests that “across-the-board” treatment, far from fragmenting the proof adduced at trial, may in fact be a preferred method for testing for discrimination by an employer with a large diverse work force. B. EEOC Charges by Intervenors. The Bank next challenges this court’s earlier holding, see Vuyanich, supra n.1, 82 F.R.D. at 437-38, that Marisu Fenton, Dorothy Hooks, and Marjorie Jackson could intervene as the representatives of certain subclasses despite having failed to file EEOC charges. Citing Hodge v. McLean Trucking Co., 607 F.2d 1118 (5th Cir. 1979), it asserts that the case of Wheeler v. American Home Products Corp., 563 F.2d 1233 (5th Cir. 1977), on which this court’s holding was based, has been overruled. This argument must fail for two reasons. First, one panel of the Fifth Circuit has no power to overrule a decision of a previous panel. E. g., Ford v. United States, 618 F.2d 357, 361 (5th Cir. 1980); Gates v. Collier, 616 F.2d 1268, 1272 (5th Cir. 1980). Second, even were a panel possessed of such a power, examination of Hodge reveals it to be fully consistent with, if not dictated by, the Wheeler doctrine. The Fifth Circuit in Oatis v. Crown Zellerbach Corp., 398 F.2d 496 (5th Cir. 1968), first established the rule that unnamed plaintiffs in a Title VII class action need not have exhausted administrative remedies by filing a discrimination charge with the EEOC. The court in that case reasoned that it would “be wasteful, if not vain, for numerous employees, all with the same grievance, to have to process many identical complaints with the EEOC.” 398 F.2d at 498. Thus it held that the EEOC complaint of the named class representative was sufficient to support an action on behalf of the entire class. This rule was extended to intervenors in Wheeler v. American Home Products Corp., supra, an action in which class status had been denied. See Romasanta v. United Airlines, Inc., 537 F.2d 915, 919 n.7 (7th Cir. 1976), aff’d sub nom. United Airlines, Inc. v. McDonald, 432 U.S. 385, 97 S.Ct. 24, 64, 52 L.Ed.2d 423 (1977). The Oatis and Wheeler cases both rely on the EEOC complaint of the original plaintiff to stand in lieu of EEOC complaints by others. Hence it is not surprising that intervention was denied in Hodge, where the original plaintiff had failed to file an effective EEOC complaint, since in that case the intervenors could not rely on the original plaintiffs charge. This being the case, Hodge cannot be interpreted as altering the long-standing rule in the Fifth Circuit that intervenors need not exhaust EEOC remedies. Finally, the Bank argues that there must be an independent basis of jurisdiction for each subclass, /. e., that for each subclass there must be a representative who has filed an EEOC charge. The Bank argues that this requirement is a necessary concomitant of an asserted requirement under Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(c)(4)(B) that each subclass meet all the requirements of Rule 23. See Monarch Asphalt Sales Co. v. Wilshire Oil Co., 511 F.2d 1073, 1077 (10th Cir. 1975); Weathers v. Peters Realty Corp., 499 F.2d 1197, 1200 (6th Cir. 1974); cf. Chmieleski v. City Products Corp., 71 F.R.D. 118, 150 (W.D.Mo.1976) (numerosity). Assuming arguendo that subclasses must always satisfy each requirement of Rule 23, it does not follow that an independent jurisdictional base is required for each subclass. The ratio decidendi of Oat is and Wheeler was that the named plaintiff’s EEOC charge will be typical of those which would have been filed by those she represents. Sub-classing was undertaken in this case for the dual purposes of facilitating presentation of issues, Vuyanich, supra n.l, 82 F.R.D. at 433, and eliminating potential conflicts of interest, id. at 435. Since the court found plaintiffs’ claims to be an “across-the-board” attack on discriminatory practices, typicality, while serving as a convenient basis for separation of subclasses, was not a factor compelling subclassing. Otherwise stated, the entire class, notwithstanding subclassing, continues to complain of “across-the-board” discrimination. Hence, just as absent class members in an “across-the-board” suit may rely on the named plaintiff’s charge, Oatis, supra, and just as intervenors who assert claims common to those asserted by existing plaintiffs may travel on those plaintiffs’ complaints, Wheeler, supra, the subclass representatives may rely on the EEOC charges of plaintiffs Vuyanich and Johnson. See Vuyanich, supra n.1, 82 F.R.D. at 437-38. C. Class Redefinition. This court has recognized its “continuing duty to monitor and modify the class according to the facts that develop.” Cooper v. University of Texas, supra, at 190. Behind this seemingly simple phrase, however, lies considerable complexity. Throughout the evaluation process, the legal standards remain the same: the case must satisfy the four prerequisites of Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a), and must fit into one or more of the categories of Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(b). Nonetheless, the extent to which a determination that these requirements have been satisfied may be reexamined during the course of the litigation must vary from requirement to requirement and must depend on the procedural posture of the case. Just as class certification is not a ritual exercise which once done may be laid to one side, class reevaluation cannot depend on a formalistic invocation of the five class action requirements. The four prerequisites of Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a) serve to protect the differing and occasionally antagonistic interests of the named parties, the unnamed class members, and the court. The numerosity requirement of Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a)(1), for example, protects the interests of absent class members, who might otherwise be unnecessarily deprived of the right to control their owh litigation, and those of the court, “in assuring a full and fair exposition of views by all affected parties when it is practicable to join them in a single proceeding.” Scott v. University of Delaware, 601 F.2d 76, 88 (3d Cir.), cert, denied, 444 U.S. 931, 100 S.Ct. 275, 62 L.Ed.2d 189 (1979). The commonality requirement of Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a)(2) serves to focus the issues, protecting both the court and the defendant by ensuring that resources are not wasted through inquiry into a multitude of diverse controversies. The adequacy of representation test of Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a)(4) is for the primary benefit of absent class members, whose rights might otherwise be adjudicated in a binding fashion without a complete presentation of the facts and legal arguments supporting their contentions. See generally C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1765 (1972). The typicality requirement of Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a)(3) has been characterized as a “double schizophrenic.” 3B Moore’s Federal Practice ¶ 23.06-2, at 23-192 (2d ed. 1980). It serves both the class and the court, complementing the commonality requirement as well as providing an intuitive check on the court’s determination that the class representative will adequately protect the rights of absent class members. The differing nature of these purposes suggests that differing levels of inquiry apply to each of the requirements as the litigation evolves. At the outset of the case, all four requirements must be satisfied. Fed.R. Civ.P. 23(c)(1) requires the court, “[a]s soon as practicable after the commencement of” the action, to determine whether it may be maintained as a class action. The standard of proof for such a determination is, however, ill-defined. As the court stated in its earlier order with regard to commonality: Of course a plaintiff must do more to demonstrate the existence of the question than simply assert its existence. Bare bones conclusions are insufficient. At the same time, a plaintiff need not make out a prima facie case of liability. The higher courts have not yet articulated where between these marks a plaintiff must place his proof. Vuyanich, supra n.1, 82 F.R.D. at 431. Similar uncertainty exists as to how far a plaintiff must go in proving numerosity, adequacy, and typicality. We do know that a plaintiff need not show at the class certification stage that she has a winning individual claim as a sine qua non to the typicality of her claim or the adequacy of her representation. Huff v. N. D. Cass Co., 485 F.2d 710 (5th Cir. 1973) (en banc). At this early stage, the typicality requirement will commonly be met by a showing that the issues which will likely be raised at trial by the named plaintiff are typical of those of the class, and the adequacy requirement by a demonstration that plaintiff will likely be an adequate representative at trial due to her incentive and ability to represent the class and the absence of conflicts of interest between herself and the class. Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(c)(1) also authorizes the court to alter or amend a class certification order as the litigation progresses. Hence if pretrial activity demonstrates that a case is not appropriate for class treatment, the district court should decertify the action. Lamphere v. Brown University, 553 F.2d 714, 720 (1st Cir. 1977). Considerations such as this led this court to decertify the portion of the class composed of unsuccessful female applicants for nonexempt positions. Vuyanich, supra n.l, 82 F.R.D. at 438. As discovery progresses, it is reasonable to hold the plaintiff to a higher standard of satisfaction of such requirements as numerosity and commonality, as to which more precise proof will become available. At the same time, reliance on incentive, ability, lack of conflict, and typicality as measures of adequate representation, while still present, will give way to an evaluation of the extent to which the plaintiff’s litigation performance demonstrates adequacy. Thus if it becomes apparent that adequate representation is not being provided, the court must withdraw class status from the suit. Guerine v. J & W Investments, supra, at 864-65. The duty to continually reevaluate class status does not end with the commencement of trial. Because, however, by the end of trial the court’s interests in efficiency and manageability have for better or for worse been realized or frustrated, the focus of reevaluation at this stage must be on the factors protecting the parties, named and unnamed. Principal among these is adequacy of representation, and the court must not hesitate to decertify a class in whole or in part if the plaintiff has failed to present at least minimal evidence, or has otherwise demonstrated that her representation of all or part of the class is less than adequate. Cooper v. University of Texas, supra, at 198. Likewise, if the court finds that the numerosity requirement, which is based in part on protection of the absent class members’ right of autonomy, is not satisfied, the court must decertify. Scott v. University of Delaware, supra, at 88-89. By this stage of the proceedings, the emphasis is on actual rather than predictive measures of adequacy and numerosity: the proof has presumably been fully developed, and the court may evaluate plaintiff’s actual adequacy at trial. The role of typicality in the post-trial class reevaluation scenario is uncertain. To the extent that typicality mirrors the commonality requirement, whose role is diminished once the trial is concluded, its role will also be diminished. To the extent that typicality serves as a predictor of adequacy of representation, its importance is overshadowed by the more objective measures of adequacy which become available after prolonged observation by the court of the conduct of plaintiff and her counsel. While the typicality requirement does serve a residual role of providing a check on the accuracy of that evaluation, that role is limited: unless the named plaintiff’s claim appears at trial to be so atypical of the those of the class that the adequacy of her representation is drawn into question, the court should not decertify the class merely because the individual plaintiff’s proof differs from that presented on behalf of the class. This is especially the case where, as here, consideration of the named plaintiff’s individual claim has been severed from trial of class issues. The Bank argues that there must be a “continuing nexus” at all stages of the litigation between the named class representation and the class members she represents. While this assertion is undoubtedly correct in the abstract, the “continuing nexus” test cannot be mechanically applied without regard to the procedural posture of the case. In each of the cases cited by the Bank, an appellate court held that a class representative whose individual claim has failed cannot continue to represent the class, either on appeal or on remand following appeal. East Texas Motor Freight Systems, Inc. v. Rodriguez, supra; Armour v. City of Anniston, 597 F.2d 46 (5th Cir. 1979), vacated, 445 U.S. 940, 100 S.Ct. 1334, 63 L.Ed.2d 774, remanded, 622 F.2d 1226 (5th Cir. 1980); Davis v. Roadway Express, Inc., 590 F.2d 140 (5th Cir. 1979), on rehearing, 621 F.2d 775 (5th Cir. 1980) (reaffirmed, but on other grounds than in earlier opinion); Camper v. Calumet Petrochemicals, Inc., 584 F.2d 70 (5th Cir. 1978); Satterwhite v. City of Greenville, supra n.8. It is a far different matter, however, to hold that the failure of a named plaintiff’s claim at trial requires the retroactive decertification of the class and consequent failure of the class claims. This distinction is recognized by the “continuing nexus” cases themselves. In Rodriguez, the progenitor of this line of cases, the Court stated: Obviously, a different case would be presented if the District Court had certified a class and only later had it appeared that the named plaintiffs were not class members or were otherwise inappropriate class representatives. In such a case, the class claims would have already been tried, and, provided the initial certification was proper and decertification not appropriate, the claims of the class members would not need to be mooted or destroyed because subsequent events or the proof at trial had undermined the named plaintiffs’ individual claims. [Citations]. Where no class has been certified, however, and the class claims remain to be tried, the decision whether the named plaintiff should represent a class is appropriately made on the full record, including the facts developed at the trial of the plaintiffs’ individual claims. 431 U.S. at 406 n.12, 97 S.Ct. at 1898 n.12. The Fifth Circuit in Satterwhite outlined the reasons underlying this distinction: Where a class is certified, and class claims tried, before the lack of merit or mootness of the representative’s claim is discovered, the class representative has already assiduously asserted the claims of the constituents. The conservation of both litigants’ and judicial resources makes it desirable not only to avoid abortion of the litigation but also to prevent prejudice to the members of a certified class who, in the midst of a law suit, suddenly discover that their representative’s claim is no longer viable. 578 F.2d at 994. Accord, Drayton v. City of St. Petersburg, All F.Supp. 846, 857 n.19 (M.D.Fla.1979). Indeed, in addition to wasting the resources of the parties and the court and frustrating the reasonable reliance of absent class members, decertification on the basis of failure of the individual plaintiff’s claim would in many cases dis-serve the defendant, by depriving it of an adjudication of nonliability binding on the class. It remains only to apply these standards of class reevaluation to the present case. The Bank makes no argument that the numerosity and commonality requirements are no longer satisfied, and indeed no such argument could be made given the state of the record. The course of the trial has revealed no continuing pattern of inadequacy of representation warranting decertification. Decertification of particular subgroups within the class and subclasses involves an evaluation of whether the plaintiffs have produced at least minimal evidence on the issues applicable to those subgroups, and is best deferred until consideration and evaluation of those parts of the plaintiffs’ case. As will be seen, no decertification is warranted. Finally, the testimony of the named class representatives reveals their claims to be sufficiently typical that no substantial doubts are raised as to the adequacy of their representation. The testimony of plaintiffs Vuyanich and Johnson has already been described in section I, supra, and will not be repeated here. The testimony of intervenors Jackson, Fenton, and Hooks at trial mirrored that given by them during the class certification hearing and summarized in n.6, supra. The wide variety of discriminatory practices testified to by these individuals reinforces the court’s earlier determination that the essence of their claims was the presence of a racially and sexually discriminatory animus pervading the Bank’s personnel practices. Whether this animus in fact existed is a question which must await more detailed evaluation of the statistical and other evidence presented at trial. The court is convinced at this juncture, however, that the claims of the named plaintiffs and intervenors, whether meritorious or not, are typical of those asserted on behalf of the class. III. The Bank and Its History With 2,400 full-time employees and assets exceeding $8 billion, Republic National Bank is among the 25 largest banks in the United States and is the largest bank in the South. Through its sister companies, its corporate influence is further extended, as it is the “flagship” bank of the Republic of Texas Corporation, a bank holding company incorporated under the laws of Texas with some 30 wholly-owned subsidiaries. The Bank’s principal business is commercial lending. Republic lends to consumers as well as businesses, but consumer lending accounts for not more than 5% of its loan portfolio. Indeed, Republic is the third largest nonretail unit bank in the United States. The “line” function of commercial lending is carried out by the Bank’s five commercial banking departments. The Banking Department, consisting of the Cash Management, Commodity, Metropolitan, Southwestern, and National Divisions, provides business loans and financial consultation to the customers of those divisions’ respective geographic regions. Loans to individuals are provided by the Consumer Lending Group of the Metropolitan Division. Loans to other banks are generated by the Correspondent Banking Department, while the Real Estate Department offers single mortgage lending services and interim financing for the building and construction industry. The Petroleum and Minerals Department makes loans to companies in the petroleum and related minerals industry, and the International Department provides financial assistance to United States based companies who wish to deal in foreign markets, in addition to financial service to those markets. Other departments in the Bank include the Trust and Investment Department, the Finance and Credit Administration Department, the Operations Department, and the Funds Management Department. The Trust and Investment Department is responsible for managing money and other assets for individuals and organizations, according to specified conditions set out in trust agreements. The department consists of the following divisions: Securities Management Services, Personal Services, Operations Services, Corporate Services, Legal Counsel, Taxes, and Business in Trust. The Funds Management Department is responsible for making investment judgments affecting the flow of funds in and out of the Bank. The objective of this department is to ensure that surplus funds are properly invested to obtain maximum return, and that funds needed to meet the Bank’s money commitments are secured at the lowest cost. This department also houses the Bank’s municipal bonds and sales and trading operation, as well as bond portfolio management. The Finance and Credit Administration Department is responsible for the day-today business of the Bank. This department includes the following divisions: Controller, Personnel, Credit and Corporate Finance, and Loan Review and Special Loans. The Operations Department is responsible for all of the Bank’s banking customer services functions and data processing, programming, production, and development. Other staff divisions at the Bank include Corporate Planning, Legal Counsel, Marketing and Public Affairs, and Economic Research, all of which report directly to the President, and the Audit Division, which reports to the Chairman of the Board. The Bank’s Personnel Division is responsible for coordinating and administering the Bank’s equal employment and personnel policies, including hiring, promotion, compensation and benefits, counseling, discipline, and termination. These responsibilities are carried out by three group managers. The Personnel Group, headed by Vice President Thomas E. Barksdale, has responsibility for the salary administration section and the payroll and benefits section. The Personal Development Group, led by Vice President Dan White, coordinates Bank employee participation in external employee development programs, and the development and presentation of internal programs leading to personal development. The Employment Group is the responsibility of Jerry M. Watson, Vice President and Manager of Interview and Selection. This group carries out the Bank’s staffing and recruiting functions. Watson also has responsibilities relating to affirmative action, internal employee transfers, terminations, counseling, and record keeping. Each group manager reports to Thomas Croft, Senior Vice President and Director of Personnel, who in turn reports to the Executive Vice President and Manager of the Bank’s Finance and Administration Department. The Bank’s structure thus reflects independent staff divisions serving the core lending function, including economic research, legal counsel, marketing, and public affairs. Over the decade spanned by this lawsuit, that structure has been staffed with a work force that has ranged in size from a low of 1,450 employees to a high of approximately 2,400. Over this time the internal lines of the structure have occasionally shifted, with resulting changes in departmental or division categories. Today the work force falls into nine separate organizational departments, with the staff divisions earlier mentioned. Roughly speaking, the Bank’s work force may be sliced horizontally according to the Fair Labor Standards Act categorization of exempt and nonexempt employees. During the period from 1969 to 1972, 71% of the work force was nonexempt and 29% was exempt (Plaintiffs’ Exhibit 641). The same approximate percentage existed throughout. Before 1965 there was a virtual absence of black employees from the Bank’s work force. From 1968 through 1972, there were no blacks in the exempt category. The first black officer of Republic Bank did not arrive until 1973. As late as 1972, females were significantly better represented than blacks in their employment in the exempt category. Like blacks, however, and throughout the 10-year period at issue, there was a concentration of females in the nonexempt categories, and in turn in the lower grades of the nonexempt range. The numbers of females hired into exempt positions, and the movement of females upward within the nonexempt category, have risen gradually over the 10-year period. Today there are approximately 15 black employees in the exempt category, all of whom are below the vice president level. Of 570 Bank officers, 132 are female, 13 of whom are at the level of vice president. IV. Bank Personnel Policy A. Personnel Division and Hiring. The Personnel Division of the Bank is headed by a Vice President. The Vice President is responsible for the Bank’s personnel activities, including day-to-day staffing, campus recruiting, EEO activities, the infirmary, counseling, and career advancement. Eight exempt employees work under his direct supervision. Hiring is done in many ways. Nonexempt employees are recruited largely through word of mouth and applicants for nonexempt positions are usually “walk-ins.” The experience of the Personnel Division has been that applicants for exempt positions are attracted by advertisements, referred by other companies to the Bank, or recruited at college campuses. The use of employment agencies and search firms is principally confined to the filling of secretarial positions or hiring of accountants and data processing specialists. Recruiting is also done through governmental and civic agencies, including the Texas Employment Commission, National Association of Bankers, the Dallas Interracial Council, Minority Women’s Employment Council, the Black Chamber of Commerce, and the Mexican-American Chamber of Commerce. In exempt job offerings, the Personnel Division has throughout the period covered by this suit placed great emphasis on the interview process. The Bank has used from time to time both black and female interviewers. The ultimate hiring decisions for exempt employment have, however, been made by white males. Throughout the 10 years covered by this suit, the Bank has had a large number of job titles and positions. The number of such titles has ranged to upwards of 3,500, with as many as 700 to 950 titles in use at a given time. In mid-1979, as part of the defense of this suit and, according to the Bank, for other business purposes as well, the entire job structure was regrouped by occupational codes and families. The purpose of this effort was said to be to achieve horizontal symmetry in job functions by looking past job titles to job functions. Employees with similar job functions albeit with different descriptive titles, were grouped together in the same job family. This division of the work force, whose results are the benchmarks for labor availability in the statistical hiring studies and other studies, is reviewed in depth where those issues are discussed. The point here is that in an overview of the Bank structure, we find a shifting organization as the Bank grew in size followed by a dramatic adjustment accomplished in one sweep. The validity of that precipitate change must be examined. See section IX(G), infra. With recruiting for entry positions leading to “line” jobs, the effort begins on college campuses, and has historically been concentrated in the Southwest. Recruiting at college campuses is confined with little exception to recruitment of exempt employees entering the credit analyst program. The credit analyst program is the main entry channel for future bank executives. As stated by the Bank, “the Credit Training Program is the means by which [the Bank] seeks out and develops persons with the potential to assume positions of managerial responsibility with the bank” (Defendant’s Post Trial Brief at 286). In hiring into this program, the Bank places great emphasis upon a business-related degree with emphasis in accounting and finance, a preference that will be examined later in the context of hiring and availability of potential employees. See section IX(G), infra. In the time period 1970-1978, 181 persons were hired into the credit training program. Of this group, 34 were hired for their experience. Of the remaining 147, only two did not have a business-related degree. These two held degrees in mathematics and law, respectively. This is consistent with the overall hiring pattern for the years 1970-1978, when there were a total of 997 exempt hires, of which 860 (86%) had at least a bachelor's degree. Of those who did not, virtually all had experience related to the jobs for which they were hired (Defendant’s Exhibits 508, 566). Credit analysts assist loan officers while they are being “trained” and provide a pool from which the loan “floor” draws. The credit training program is said by the Bank to be the breeding ground for its loan officers. And except for occasional lateral hiring of an individual with equivalent training, it is the only means for staffing loan officer positions. An examination of the pattern of Bank hires and track of progression followed by incumbent management of the Bank reveals that as a practical matter, it is the main track for higher level executives within the Bank. This is not surprising in view of the Bank’s core function of commercial lending and its insistence upon college degrees in business fields for persons in commercial lending. Indeed, throughout, the majority of all Bank officers have been in lending and marketing jobs. The credit training program at the Bank has existed throughout the time period. In fact, the current president of the Bank is a product of that program. The program’s changes have been primarily in increased intensity in curriculum. In 1969, the Bank employed a professor at the Harvard Business School to design a more intensive program and the Bank has implemented that program. In a nutshell, there is no other internal training or internship program of a formal nature at the Bank for exempt employees. The Credit Department has approximately 36 desks. A new employee historically spends approximately nine months in the department before entering one of the respective loan divisions. The new employee is expected to progress through levels of credit analyst, unit manager, and supervisor. In this nine month period, the analyst receives increasing responsibility for the credit analysis work of prospective borrowers or existing bank customers. Part of the program consists of a “live-in” system. Under this program, analysts, after a few months at the Bank, are assigned to a particular division and work for that division alone for approximately a month. This rotating assignment of live-ins allows the analyst to become familiar with the somewhat differing emphases of the respective areas of the Bank while allowing the lending officers in those areas to observe the work of the credit analyst. Credit analysts are not officers of the Bank. It is anticipated, however, that upon completion of the credit program and acceptance of a position in one of the respective lending divisions the new employee will be elected to officer status. When we turn to the filling of vacancies for nonexempt positions, the emphasis shifts from the campus to the Bank’s internal staff and to more local labor pools. Moreover, there is far more lateral hiring for nonexempt jobs than for exempt jobs. There is also some movement from nonexempt into the lower exempt jobs as well as some overlap of exempt and nonexempt personnel hiring responsibility. With nonexempt employees, the Bank’s promotional and training policies have changed over the years. Before 1975, the movement of employees from job to job within the Bank lacked formal structure. There were no predetermined paths, and no specific prohibitions or established channels. Movement was usually accomplished through one or a combination of three methods: supervisory referral; employee request to appropriate managers; and employee-initiated contact with interviewers in the Personnel Division. Not surprisingly, this loosely structured process caused personnel decisionmaking to be more subjective than the system which came into effect in 1975. In February of 1975, the Bank created a “career advancement program.” The career advancement program consists of formalized job posting and bidding, enabling employees to learn of the existence of other positions within the Bank. The program contemplates that job openings will be posted outside the employee cafeteria, at the drive-in motor bank, and at the Spring Valley Commuter center, with listings updated daily. In April of 1977, the program was expanded to include exempt job openings except those with the title of officer, manager, or administrator. Under the program, an employee interested in a transfer completes a career advancement interview request form and forwards it to the Personnel Division. As applications for transfers are received in the Personnel Division, the personnel files of the applicants are reviewed for eligibility for transfer by a personnel representative. An employee is not eligible for transfer consideration until he has been in his current job for six months. Eligible applicants are then scheduled for screening interviews in the Personnel Division. Interviews are conducted by the supervisor in the section to which the transfer is sought. Bank policy is that effort is to be made to fill vacancies by internal transfer or promotion before outside hiring is attempted, although this policy does not appear to be uniformly followed. When the Bank turns to outside employees, authorization must be granted by the Personnel Division upon receipt of a personnel requisition by a line manager or a request for addition to staff. The Personnel Division’s employment group interviewers begin efforts to fill the job. Applicants are screened by the Personnel Division and those applicants considered to possess the qualifications for the requested job are referred to management in the target division. As earlier mentioned, hiring for most nonexempt positions at the Bank begins with an applicant’s visit to the Personnel Division. Walk-ins are required to sign an applicant log at one end of the Personnel Division offices. The log is maintained by the interview coordinator, but no information has been maintained regarding qualifications of particular applicants and information regarding race and sex was not kept before 1974. Sources of Bank hires also include unsolicited resumes mailed to the Bank and college recruiting programs. While exempt and nonexempt hiring have some common sources, these resumes and the college recruiting program have been the richest source for exempt applicants. Despite this small overlap in sources, the hiring approaches were different. Before 1974, the Personnel Division used a “clerical" application form and a “professional” application form. These forms were the same except that the professional form contained places for professional and technical references while the clerical form contained a space for office machine operation, typing speed, and shorthand speed. The Bank claims that the professional form was given to those who expressed an interest in exempt positions or those who had a college degree. The form, utilized by the Bank since 1974, instructs walk-in applicants to indicate specific areas of banking in which they are interested and for which they are qualified. Upon receipt of the completed application form, the interview coordinator arranges an interview with one of the Personnel Division interviewers if the applicant has the “appropriate” qualifications. That is, there is some pre-interview screening: while the Personnel Division interviews many persons, not all applicants are interviewed. But the failure to interview was not the subject of separate evidentiary focus, and we do not know, apart from inferences from mere general hiring and placement models, whether the failure to interview itself cut along racial or sexual lines. In the interviewing process there is a channeling effect, because applicants have historically been directed to interviewers who specialize in either exempt or clerical or nonexempt positions, and the route to the exempt positions not surprisingly results in a more rigorous interview process. If the interviewer determines that the applicant is qualified for an open position in which she has expressed interest, the applicant is referred to the appropriate supervisor or manager. If the manager determines that the applicant is the one desired, attempts are then made to verify the applicant’s history. The supervisor/manager makes the final decision to hire or reject the applicant upon receipt of verified work histories. With exempt employees, more than one manager may participate in the decision. The salary level of the incoming employee is chosen by the manager by application of salary guidelines issued by the Salary Administration Section of the Personnel Division. An offer of employment is then extended by the interviewer. B. Affirmative Action. Beginning in the late 1960’s, and continuing with increasing emphasis in 1974 and later years, the Bank has engaged in various affirmative action efforts. In 1974, the Bank came under new and younger upper-level management in the person of President Charles Pistor. At approximately the same time, the Bank began a more intensified effort to engage in affirmative action efforts. At least since Pistor assumed the presidency, there is little question that it has been the announced policy of the Bank’s senior management not to discriminate. In 1964, the first written EEO policy was adopted and circulated within the Bank. The first Affirmative Action Plan was drawn in 1970 and was distributed to managers in 1971. The plan was submitted to and approved by the Treasury Department in early 1971. Through 1975, the Treasury Department monitored the Affirmative Action Plan. Under the Bank’s Affirmative Action Plan, the Vice President for Personnel receives monthly status reports revealing the percentage of hires that are minorities. The Bank’s newspaper advertisements, at least since 1971, have contained the usual addendum that the Bank is an equal opportunity employer. In the 1968-1973 period, five charges of discrimination were filed with the EEOC by employees, as part of a total of 43 charges for the 10-year period of this suit (Defendant’s Exhibit 177). The EEOC in July, 1974, charged the Bank with discrimination, and a conciliation agreement was reached in December, 1976 (Plaintiffs’ Exhibit 733). The agreement settled four employee charges and set various hiring and distributive goals. In 1975, the Treasury Department presented a list of “deficiencies” which resulted in a conciliation agreement in March, 1977. Beginning in the latter part of 1968, of 19 colleges visited by the Bank, eight were predominately black and one was predominately female. As Jerry Watson advised his supervisors in April, 1975: The selection of colleges and universi