Inside Higher Ed: Challenge to the Power of Tenure
If a faculty member has his or her tenure rights violated, one recourse may be to file a suit — where an aggrieved professor could seek not only damages but reinstatement. While most professors might not want to go to court, the knowledge that they have that as an option gives them an important protection.
What if a state law said instead that tenure violations could be settled with a small sum of money and no reinstatement — and that such minimal compensation is all you could get? Obviously that would be much less protection, and that’s why the American Association of University Professors is seeking to intervene in an unusual dispute involving a professor who was dismissed from a tenured job at the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico. A federal district court ruled that even if the professor could win on the merits of his suit, he would be entitled only to compensation under Puerto Rico’s Law 80, which provides victimized employees with three months of salary, plus a week of salary for every year of service, for those who have worked 15 years or more. (The professor had worked 28 years, so he would end up with less than a year of pay, with no chance at getting his job back.)
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