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Settlement in Unfair Termination Suit
By Gwendolyn Bradley
A former University of Dubuque professor settled in August with that institution for $50,000 in an unfair termination lawsuit that he had filed in 2006. Paul Jeffries, a professor of philosophy and religion, had been granted tenure in 2005 and was later offered an endowed chair in which he was to teach and make presentations about ethics. Jeffries was asked to sign a new contract, which stipulated that he would not make any “disparaging, denigrating, or otherwise critical statements” about the university to the media. When he refused to sign, the administration said he would be removed from the endowed chair position and stripped of tenure. Instead, Jeffries left the university and filed suit.
The University of Dubuque has been on the AAUP’s list of censured administrations since 2002, when an investigating committee found that the institution’s board and administration violated principles of academic tenure, due process, and academic governance by terminating two tenured faculty appointments on grounds of alleged financial exigency. The AAUP’s 2002 report sharply criticized the anti-disparagement clause, which was then already in use at the university, as inimical to academic freedom.
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