Academic Freedom and Tenure: Metropolitan Community Colleges

Published in the March-April 1984 issue of Academe.


The events and issues discussed in this report stem from actions taken by the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Community Colleges on December 14, 1978. At its meeting on that date, the board (1) amended its policies governing layoff of members of the faculty so as to allow for appointment or retention of part-time faculty members to teach in particular areas while fulltime tenured faculty members in those areas were released; (2) received a statement from Mr. William D. Hatley, then chancellor of the college system, describing it as being in a state of financial exigency; and (3) accepted recommendations from the chancellor that twenty-one full-time tenured faculty members be issued notice of layoff, effective at the conclusion of the fall semester of the 1979-80 academic year, and that two academic programs be suspended.