In January 1991 almost half the students in the College of Architecture and Planning (now Architecture and Design) signed a petition requesting that the 1990 decision not to offer tenure to Judith Reno be reconsidered. Prior to joining the UT faculty, Reno had worked for six years in Los Angeles architecture firms, taught at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and at Auburn University. At UT she received a faculty development grant and was nominated for an Alumni Outstanding Teacher Award. The architecture students considered her an irreplaceable teacher. Reno filed a $250,000 lawsuit against UT, alleging that the School of Architecture “purposefully and maliciously discriminated against [her] both on the basis of sex and in contravention of the faculty handbook.” Reno (AB Boston University, M Arch UCLA) accepted a position at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where she authored the curriculum for the urban design program and then directed the program.