Tag Archives: Tenure & Promotion

Union president says professor’s dismissal first in 25 years

Posted on April 6, 2009 by | Comments Off on Union president says professor’s dismissal first in 25 years

Calgary Herald: Union president says professor’s dismissal first in 25 years

OTTAWA — Denis Rancourt is the first tenured professor fired by the University of Ottawa in at least 25 years, according to the president of the university’s professors’ union.

“To my recollection, it generally doesn’t happen at the university,” said Atef Fatim, president of the Association of Professors at the University of Ottawa.

Rancourt, a physics professor and self-described anarchist, was suspended by the university in December after attracting national media attention for his unorthodox teaching methods, which included giving an A-plus to every student in an upper-year physics class.

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Kentucky: Vote of ‘No Confidence’ in Board That Abolished Tenure

Posted on April 6, 2009 by | Comments Off on Kentucky: Vote of ‘No Confidence’ in Board That Abolished Tenure

Inside Higher Ed: Vote of ‘No Confidence’ in Board That Abolished Tenure

On Friday, the faculty at Southeast Kentucky Community College passed a motion of “no confidence” in the president and Board of Regents of the Kentucky Community and Technical College system by a vote of 68 to 30. The motion cites the board’s recent decision to abolish tenure and retirement health benefits for all new employees hired after July 1. Southeast faculty behind the vote indicated that they expect many more faculty groups at the system’s 16 colleges to hold similar votes in the coming weeks. Richard Bean, chair of the Board of Regents, said the system leadership is “always listening” but did say he was “disappointed” in the college’s vote: “The board has listened for two years, and we had a very clear vote that we wanted to have the ability to meet the needs of Kentucky’s students. We wish [the faculty who voted ‘no confidence’] were as concerned about the students and population of the Commonwealth as [is the board]. We’re sorry that they don’t want the system to be agile enough to provide the type of education we want to provide and for the topics that need to be given at any given time.”

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Ward Churchill’s $1 Damage Award Said to Have Been Product of Jury Compromise

Posted on April 3, 2009 by | Comments Off on Ward Churchill’s $1 Damage Award Said to Have Been Product of Jury Compromise

The Chronicle News Blog: Ward Churchill’s $1 Damage Award Said to Have Been Product of Jury Compromise

Thursday’s jury verdict in Ward Churchill’s lawsuit against the University of Colorado has given rise to a mystery: How is it that a jury could rule that the university had acted illegally in firing Mr. Churchill, and yet still award him only $1 in damages?

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Posted in Legal issues

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Jury Says Ward Churchill Was Wrongly Fired

Posted on April 3, 2009 by | Comments Off on Jury Says Ward Churchill Was Wrongly Fired

The New York Times: Jury Says Professor Was Wrongly Fired

DENVER — A jury found on Thursday that the University of Colorado had wrongfully dismissed a professor who drew national attention for an essay in which he called some victims of the Sept. 11 attacks “little Eichmanns.”

Ward Churchill, who was a tenured professor at the University of Colorado, left, walked with his lead attorney David Lane out of the courtroom after a jury ruled that he was wrongly fired by school administrators, on Thursday.

But the jury, which deliberated for a day and a half, awarded only $1 in damages to the former professor, Ward L. Churchill, a tenured faculty member at the university’s campus in Boulder since 1991 who was chairman of the ethnic studies department.

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Amid Talk of High Ideals, Arguments Close in Ward Churchill’s Lawsuit

Posted on April 2, 2009 by | Comments Off on Amid Talk of High Ideals, Arguments Close in Ward Churchill’s Lawsuit

The Chronicle: Amid Talk of High Ideals, Arguments Close in Ward Churchill’s Lawsuit

The trial in Ward Churchill’s wrongful-dismissal lawsuit against the University of Colorado drew to a close on Wednesday with the embattled professor’s lawyer telling jurors that nothing less than the fate of the Constitution rested in their hands.

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Churchill jury returns today

Posted on April 2, 2009 by | Comments Off on Churchill jury returns today

The Denver Post: Churchill jury returns today

A Denver jury will continue deliberating the fate of Ward Churchill’s civil case against the University of Colorado today after meeting for a half-day Wednesday without reaching a verdict.

The four women and two men listened to the case for four weeks and heard 45 witnesses testify in the courtroom of Denver Chief District Judge Larry J. Naves. Two male alternates were sent home after closing arguments Tuesday.

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Critics Challenge Diversity Language in Virginia Tech’s Tenure Policy

Posted on March 26, 2009 by | Comments Off on Critics Challenge Diversity Language in Virginia Tech’s Tenure Policy

The Chronicle: Critics Challenge Diversity Language in Virginia Tech’s Tenure Policy

Virginia Tech has come under criticism from some outside groups for a set of new guidelines that, the critics say, appear to require faculty members to show a commitment to diversity as part of their bids for tenure and promotion.

The critics, including the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, say the guidelines establish a “loyalty oath” that violates professors’ academic freedom.

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Defeating Post-Tenure Review

Posted on March 25, 2009 by | Comments Off on Defeating Post-Tenure Review

Inside Higher Ed: Defeating Post-Tenure Review

Who reviews the performance of tenured faculty members? Can such reviews have teeth without interfering with the principles of tenure?

Those issues are central to discussions of post-tenure review, a process that exists in some form at many colleges and can be controversial. The University of Maryland at College Park found that out this month when the faculty considered a proposal that would have required annual reviews of tenured faculty performance, and would have allowed sanctions, including pay cuts for some professors who receive three consecutive years of negative reviews. The faculty overwhelmingly rejected the plan, seeing it as unnecessary, unfair and a diminishment of tenure.

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Ward Churchill Is Defiant in Second Day on Witness Stand

Posted on March 25, 2009 by | Comments Off on Ward Churchill Is Defiant in Second Day on Witness Stand

The New York Times: Fired Colorado Professor Is Cross-Examined in Lawsuit

DENVER — A former University of Colorado professor spent nearly six hours defending his scholarly work on Tuesday during cross-examination in his lawsuit contending that he was fired for an essay he wrote about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The Chronicle News Blog: Ward Churchill Is Defiant in Second Day on Witness Stand

Ward Churchill acknowledged some flaws in his scholarship, but strenuously denied that any merited his 2007 dismissal by the University of Colorado, in testimony delivered today in a trial in which he is attempting to prove that his firing violated his First Amendment rights.

The Denver Post: Churchill: Plagiarism occurred: But it wasn’t he who lifted from another prof’s essay, he asserts.

A juror’s question, posed Tuesday after former professor Ward Churchill had been on the witness stand for more than seven hours, gave him the opening to argue — succinctly — that he was the victim of his controversial views, not his scholarship.
The Denver Post: 2nd day on stand for Churchill

The Colorado Daily: Regent testimony closes out the day

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Churchill takes the stand

Posted on March 24, 2009 by | Comments Off on Churchill takes the stand

Denver Post: Fired prof takes the stand; Fights to regain his post

Ward Churchill took his fight to regain his professorship to the witness stand Monday afternoon, defending his views on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and asserting that his academic practices were entirely routine.

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Washington: Denial of tenure spurs grievance, accusations; Clark College newspaper adviser suspects retribution

Posted on March 23, 2009 by | Comments Off on Washington: Denial of tenure spurs grievance, accusations; Clark College newspaper adviser suspects retribution

The Columbian: Denial of tenure spurs grievance, accusations

Clark College newspaper adviser suspects retribution

Clark College got a surprise in 2006-07 when the new faculty adviser for the school’s student-run newspaper pushed an aggressive, investigative style that pleased some on campus but chafed at several administrators.

Edgy stories and editorials in The Independent questioned campus security, the competence of student advising and top-level decisions to eliminate academic programs or trim services in response to the current deep state budget crisis.

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Kentucky community colleges eliminate tenure

Posted on March 19, 2009 by | Comments Off on Kentucky community colleges eliminate tenure

Inside Higher Ed: Read Their Lips: No New Tenure

In a one-sided vote, the Kentucky Community and Technical College System’s Board of Regents decided Friday to eliminate tenure for all new faculty hires. Though top system officials lauded the move, many faculty groups pledged to take fight to the state Legislature.

The 14-member board is made up of eight gubernatorial appointees and six representatives elected by the system’s faculty, staff and students. The appointed members have full votes and elected members have half a vote. By a vote of 8.5 to 2.5, the Regents approved a revision of the system’s employment policy that eliminates the possibility of tenure for all new faculty hires.

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Kentucky regents vote to curb tenure at community colleges

Posted on March 16, 2009 by | Comments Off on Kentucky regents vote to curb tenure at community colleges

Courier-Journal: Regents vote to curb tenure at community colleges
Vote by community college board angers instructors

VERSAILLES, Ky. — With faculty members raising signs in protest, the Board of Regents for Kentucky’s community and technical colleges voted yesterday to eliminate tenure for new employees and drop health insurance for new retirees.

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Ward Churchill’s Day in Court Arrives

Posted on March 11, 2009 by | Comments Off on Ward Churchill’s Day in Court Arrives

The Chronicle: Ward Churchill’s Day in Court Arrives

The trial in Ward Churchill’s lawsuit against the University of Colorado got under way here on Tuesday with lawyers for the opposing sides painting starkly different pictures of both the controversial ethnic-studies professor and the circumstances surrounding his dismissal by the university in 2007.

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Ayers: Colo. professor was fired in ‘witch hunt’

Posted on March 6, 2009 by | Comments Off on Ayers: Colo. professor was fired in ‘witch hunt’

USA Today: Ayers: Colo. professor was fired in ‘witch hunt’

DENVER (AP) — William Ayers, the former Weather Underground radical whose past made him a lightning rod in the 2008 presidential campaign, said Thursday that fired Colorado professor Ward Churchill became the victim of a “witch hunt” after comparing Sept. 11 victims to a Nazi.

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No Tenure? No Problem.

Posted on March 2, 2009 by | Comments Off on No Tenure? No Problem.

The Chronicle Review: No Tenure? No Problem.

How to make $100,000 a year as an adjunct English instructor

By DOUGLAS W. TEXTER

I recently defended my dissertation in English at a land-grant institution in the Midwest. Our department’s national reputation plunges every year as the new hires get weirder and their expertise more esoteric. Ph.D. degrees from our department, unless you’re female or a minority, don’t provide much value in the marketplace. Even if you do fit into one of those desirable categories, you’re probably screwed and headed to a $40,000-a-year job — much less if you get one of those stunningly low-paid, visiting-professor gigs.

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French Government Backs Down Amid Protests Over Higher-Education Proposals

Posted on February 26, 2009 by | Comments Off on French Government Backs Down Amid Protests Over Higher-Education Proposals

The Chronicle News Blog: French Government Backs Down Amid Protests Over Higher-Education Proposals

The French government has yielded to pressure following weeks of protests and disruptions at universities across the country and announced that a controversial decree governing the hiring and promotion of researchers engaged in teaching would be “entirely rewritten on the basis of discussions conducted by Valérie Pécresse [the higher-education minister] with the organizations in question.”

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U.S. Appeals Court Rules for Tenure Rights

Posted on February 23, 2009 by | Comments Off on U.S. Appeals Court Rules for Tenure Rights

Inside Higher Ed: U.S. Appeals Court Rules for Tenure Rights
February 20, 2009

A federal appeals court on Thursday restored the right of a formerly tenured faculty member in Puerto Rico to sue for damages in what he argues is a case of unfair dismissal.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit found that a lower court had unfairly applied an unusual law in Puerto Rico in a way inconsistent both with the statute’s intent and with the appropriate rights of a tenured professor. The law sets strict limits on how much certain aggrieved employees can receive for an unlawful dismissal — and those levels are so low that faculty groups feared that applying the measure would make meaningful redress impossible for them. In the case at hand, the professor had worked 28 years, but couldn’t have obtained even a year’s pay as compensation for dismissal, and would have had no chance at getting his job back.

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Federal Appeals Court Upholds Financial Protections of Tenure in Case From Puerto Rico

Posted on February 23, 2009 by | Comments Off on Federal Appeals Court Upholds Financial Protections of Tenure in Case From Puerto Rico

The Chronicle: Federal Appeals Court Upholds Financial Protections of Tenure in Case From Puerto Rico

Tenure affords college faculty members distinct income protections, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday in a decision denying a Puerto Rican private college the ability to rid itself of a professor by simply paying him the minimum severance package required under a commonwealth law.

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