Academic Freedom and Tenure

Academic Freedom and Tenure: Yeshiva University

Report regarding the administration of Yeshiva University's 1979 termination of  the appointments of three faculty members, and suspended them from further teaching responsibilities without having afforded them the safeguards of academic due process.

Academic Freedom and Tenure: Nichols College

Report concerning the administration of Nichols College's dismissal of a faculty member  prior to the expiration of his term of appointment, without providing him with the basic safeguards of academic due process

Academic Freedom and Tenure: Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas

Report discussing the lack of  written regulations or by-laws which safeguard academic freedom, tenure, and due process at Phillips County Community College. Apart from the lack of written safeguards—indeed, perhaps in part because of this deficiency—sound conditions of academic freedom, tenure, and due process do not exist at this college.

Academic Freedom and Tenure: Murray State University

Report on the administration of Murray State University's 1975 termination of the services of nine faculty members without due process and in disregard of the role of faculty in reaching decisions of faculty status.

Academic Freedom and Tenure: State University of New York

Report regarding retrenchments at the State University of New York that were initiated by the University administration without appropriate consultation with the faculty and without any showing of a financial exigency. They were overseen by the administration with disregard for the rights of tenure, for due notice, and for the role of the faculty in institutional government.

Academic Freedom and Tenure: Concordia Seminary

Report regarding the administration of Concordia Seminary's 1972 termination of a faculty member based on outside ecclesiastical authorities' displeasure with his views on matters that fell within his academic competence, despite the recommendations of his colleagues and inadequate notice of the termination of his services

Academic Freedom and Tenure: Frank Phillips College

Report on the administration of  Frank Phillips College's 1965 dismissal of a faculty member without providing cause, without academic due process, and without providing for any payment of salary beyond the date of notification of dismissal.

Academic Freedom and Tenure: Grove City College

Report on the 1962 termination of a faculty member by the administration of Grove City College without due process. The dismissal action in this case was accompanied by collateral controversy, disclosure of unusual attendant circumstances, and frequent display of emotion. Many of these elements were reported in the press and by radio and television broadcast. Therefore, the investigating committee additionally issued  a set of Supplementary Observations and these are included in this report..

Incentives to Forgo Tenure

Tenure is "indispensable to the success of an institution in fulfilling its obligations to its students and to society." So declares the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure. The academic community, however, has never lacked for proposals that would undermine tenure and thus its role in serving students and society. Among such current proposals, one in particular requires comment because it has surfaced in recent cases considered by Committee A.1  It proposes that prospective faculty members accept renewable term appointments and forgo consideration for tenure and/or that current faculty members renounce tenure in return for some advantage, such as a higher salary, accelerated leave, or other pecuniary consideration. Proponents of these agreements argue that they embody a free exchange of mutual benefit to the parties. If academic tenure withers in consequence, they claim, that only demonstrates that, in a free market, faculty will have demonstrated their unwillingness to support tenure.

Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Governance Violations at NEIU

An AAUP investigating committee’s report published in December deals with a case of tenure denial at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. The candidate, an assistant professor of linguistics, had been recommended for tenure successively during the 2011–12 academic year by his tenured linguistics colleagues, his department chair, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and, unanimously, the faculty’s elected University Personnel Committee.

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