On Sat, 1 Jul 2006, Auguste Blanqui wrote:
> A question for the lawyers and some of the others... Does anyone know what
> the legal precedent for tenure revocation and academic dismissal is? I was
> having an argument with someone on Churchill, and then the state of academic
> freedom more generally, then wondered what legal grounds might exist for
> formal job termination. I don't know anything about academics, but I've
> looked at the medical and legal professions, and the main issues that come
> up are whether the behavior of the person was directly related to his or her
> professional competence (politics wouldn't be) and the degree to which
> internal professional proceedings are "internal" and not bound by due
> process requirements. Does anyone know of any major academic freedom cases
> and how they played out?
Justin can probably answer from a legal perspective, so I'll go at this from my experience as a faculty union president at a community college. Any unionized faculty will have a contract that very explicitly describes the conditions under which tenured faculty can be released. As with all bargained working conditions, this varies from setting to setting. At many schools, the college must convene a dismissal review committee that includes faculty members, and the administration must make their case to this committee. In short, it's difficult to dismiss tenured faculty at most schools with faculty unions. I've never worked at a college or university without a faculty union, so I don't know what kind of protection tenure provides in that environment.
Miles