Law School Facing 'Financial Exigencies' Strips 14 Professors Of Tenure

Law professors at other struggling law schools ought to keep an eye on this situation as it unfolds.

Late last month, we detailed Vermont Law School’s plans to bring itself back to financial solvency by stripping a number of faculty members of their tenure and cutting out other positions entirely. At the time, Thomas McHenry, the school’s president and dean, refused to disclose how many professors would lose their tenure or their jobs, because it was a “personnel matter.” Now, thanks to a whistleblowing professor at the school and disagreement between the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and Vermont Law over whether the school followed proper regulations, we know exactly how many professors have lost their tenure protections.

In June, Peter Teachout, the chair of Vermont Law’s tenure and retention committee, sent a letter to the AAUP, notifying the organization of the school’s decision to save money by “stripping 14 out of 19 tenured faculty members of tenure.” In response, Anita Levy, AAUP’s associate secretary, told Teachout that while law schools may terminate faculty without adequate cause under “extraordinary circumstances because of financial exigencies,” the faculty and administration must together determine if such exigencies actually exist. Did anything like that happen at Vermont?

Craig Pease, a Vermont Law professor who was recently stripped of his tenure, claims that the law school never stated that it was facing any “financial exigencies” that would warrant his loss of tenure. Last week, he retained an attorney, who sent a letter to the law school demanding that Pease get his job back, with tenure. Pease’s bio has since been removed from the law school’s website, but is available on Google cache.

The ABA Journal has additional details onthe AAUP’s involvement in the dispute:

Teachout told the ABA Journal that faculty was not involved in deciding who would be stripped of tenure, other than two tenured professors who are also part of the law school’s administration.

“Even if the faculty, administration, and governing board had together determined that a state of financial exigency … did exist, the process enacted for determining whose appointments have been terminated is still be unacceptable under principles of academic freedom and tenure. Indefinite tenure carries with it the presumption of competence,” states the letter, which was signed by Anita Levy, the organization’s senior program officer. …

The AAUP letter states that faculty members stripped of tenure should receive at least one year of notice or severance salary. According to information Teachout shared with the ABA Journal, Vermont Law professors who lost tenure will receive salary at a new scale for six months in the fiscal year 2019, and medical benefits through Dec. 31.

Will more law schools that are facing financial trouble resort to stripping faculty of tenure? Of course, says Professor Donna Young of Albany Law, a member of the AAUP’s academic freedom and tenure committee. Law schools budget shortfalls are nothing new, in fact, they’re “becoming all too familiar,” she wrote in a letter to Teachout. “I fear that Vermont may be the first law school to obliterate tenure (and therefore academic freedom) and that others will try to follow its lead.”

Best of luck to those who have lost their jobs or lost their tenure at Vermont Law. Law professors at other struggling law schools ought to keep an eye on this situation as it unfolds, because their tenure may be on the line someday soon.

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14 out of 19 Vermont Law professors lose tenure, retention chair tells professors’ organization [ABA Journal]

Earlier: Law School To Cut Tenured Faculty To Solve Budget Problem


Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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