The Fora: A Higher Education Community

What is the enforcer of tenure at your place?

For some places, where faculty are unionized, the collective bargaining agreement enforces tenure.

For some public institutions, it's state law.

For some places, it's the university's governing body.

For some places, it's a faculty handbook.

For some places, it's the wording in the individual contracts.

For some places, it's merely a long-standing tradition that is never questioned.

For some places, it's a combination of some or all of the above.

The best case scenario is all of the above. Every institution is different. If the administrators at my university tried to turn tenured faculty into at-will employees via the wording in individual contracts, heads would roll. YMMV. Since YMMV, consult a lawyer. It would be even better if all of your faculty in the same situation pitched in to consult a lawyer and possibly represent all of you when it's time to hit back. Yes, you must hit back with a lawyer, ASAP. Info gathering here will not be as helpful.

Decades ago my institution nullified tenure and switched everyone to one-year contracts. We're located in an at-will employment state. Faculty eventually lobbied successfully for multi-year contracts, but they can be converted to one-year if programs are being cut, which has happened, but only infrequently.

I agree with Hegemony that a lawyer versed in both higher ed and employment law would be helpful.

I think you'd better consult a lawyer with a deep knowledge of this stuff, and have them look at all the wording.

I asked this in abstract here: https://thefora.org/index.php?topic=3668.msg135546#msg135546

But to return to it now, as I'm still trying to get advice about legal situation.

My institution currently defines tenure as a "with cause" contract. It also says that tenured faculty will be offered a contract every year.

This year, they want tenured faculty to sign a new contract that basically makes tenured faculty "at will" employees (i.e. dismissal for any - or no - cause).

Can this happen? Employment law would stop dismissal "at will during" the duration of a "with cause" contract; but this is a new contract for next year. Nothing in the faculty handbook says tenured faculty will be offered a "with cause" contract each year - it just says "a contract". So could the institution claim it is fulfilling this by offering an "at will" contract?

 At the same time, if tenured faculty accept a "at will" contract they have effectively signed away tenure and all its protections.

Is there any legal recourse for tenured faculty asked to renounce their tenure status/accept a "at will" contract in relation to next year's contract?

 Are there examples of institutions that have successfully taken away or nullified every tenured professor's tenure?

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on April 13, 2024, 08:48:07 AMBit of grading, bit of T1.

The world conspired against me, and nothing was done. I am pretty annoyed about it.

It was an hours long grind, but taxes filed and accepted!

QuoteFaith Ringgold Dies at 93; Wove Black Life Into Quilts and Children's Books
A champion of Black artists, she explored themes of race, gender, class, family and community through a vast array of media and later the written word.

I had the privilege of sitting around a table listening to her talk about one of her books. This must have been two decades ago. I've also seen her works in more than one museum.

Went birding on a very windy morning--winds must have been between 40-50 mph throughout the walk. In addition to the newly arrived warblers--pine, palm, yellow-rumped, we saw several blue-gray gnatcatchers, easily spotted because of their blue color, a brown thrasher, a green heron, a couple of turkey vultures, a kestrel, a falcon, two ospreys circling over water, most likely looking for food when they were chased off by a red-tailed hawk, more red-tailed hawks, and several good views of a blue grosbeak. He didn't have intense blue coloring of adult males, but was beginning to take on the blue (according to the expert birders in the group).

conspiracy!
I got TurboTax yesterday, but my internet connection has been off for the past 12 hours!  not able to download it!
Hopefully restored soon!

I find it very hard to believe that Jackson thought the moon was a gaseous planet which produces heat.  That's crazy, even for the most uneducated person.  Her garbled syntax on top of this is a matter of cognitive difficulties, I am betting. She probably should not be in office.

Generalized comments on academics who seldom venture outside their discipline or the state of education, sure, they make sense, but I don't think they are applicable here.