Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Due Process

This 2008 report concerns the case of Marianna Vieira, a nontenure-track faculty member at the University of New Haven who was dismissed without adequate cause and while she was being recommended for promotion. The report deals with issues of the status of non-tenured faculty, due process, and the adequacy of the procedural standards in assessing student complaints.

This 2007 report describes how modern critics of the university seek to impose on university classrooms mandatory and ill-conceived standards of “balance,” “diversity,” and “respect,” but argues we ought to learn from history that education cannot possibly thrive in an atmosphere of state-encouraged suspicion and surveillance.

This 2007 report concerns the dismissals without adequate cause in 2005 by the administration of Bastyr University of three faculty members. The report involves issues of academic due process and adequate cause for termination and concludes that the University has an "unacceptably poor climate for academic freedom and due process."

This 2007 report concerns the dismissal of Professor Elroy W. Eckhardt from Our Lady of Holy Cross College in New Orleans. The issues involved included campus procedures, the president’s reasons for dismissing a faculty member, and the effect of the dismissal on academic freedom.

This 2006 report addresses aspects of the federal government’s regulations for research on human subjects that constitute a threat to academic freedom. The application of the federal regulations to research methodologies that present no serious risk of harm to research subjects has long been of concern.

This 2006 report concerns the tenure denial and dismissal of Professor David J. Wiedenfeld at New Mexico Highlands University without demonstration of cause and in violation of his academic freedom to the extent that the administration acted to dismiss Professor Turner because of displeasure with his public criticism of its policies and actions.

This 2006 report concerns action taken in December 2004 by the administration of Greenville College to terminate the tenured appointment of Professor Gerald W. Eichhoefer, without an appropriate hearing to examine the possibility that his dismissal may have violated his academic freedom to critique the college's theological position.

This 2005 report concerns actions taken by the administration of Virginia State University to dismiss two tenured members of the faculty after subjecting each of them to a post-tenure review process. The administration acted in violation of AAUP standards in failing to demonstrate cause before a faculty body.

This 2005 report concerns the actions taken by the administration of Cumberland College that led to the separation of Professor Robert J. Day from the faculty after he created a web page advocating for transparency and reform on campus. It is also concerned with the administration's nonrenewal of Professor James W. Bailey's appointment, also an issue of academic freedom related to Professor Day's case.

This 2005 report concerns actions in 2004 by President David H. Swinton of Benedict College (already censured in 1994) to dismiss Professors Milwood Motley and Larry Williams for having refused to grade students in their courses in accordance with a grading policy promulgated by the president.