The American Association of University Professors has issued two new reports about what it sees as unfair dismissals of faculty members.

In a case involving New Mexico Highlands University, the AAUP report says that the institution violated the AAUP’s 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure when it dismissed Gregg H. Turner, a professor of mathematics who had criticized the administration (The Chronicle, March 23, 2005). The AAUP also concluded that a separate tenure denial at the university also violated the association’s procedural standards. Finally, the investigation found that the top administrators at Highlands had acted “in disregard of the principles of shared governance.”

The dispute in New Mexico is part of a continuing battle with the university’s president, Manny Aragon, previously a powerful state legislator, who took over at Highlands in 2004. White professors there have argued that they are being discriminated against because they are not Hispanic. In 2005 some professors complained to accreditors about the president (The Chronicle, March 7, 2005).

In the second case, the AAUP report says that Greenville College, an Illinois institution affiliated with the Free Methodist Church, unfairly dismissed a tenured professor in 2004. Gerald W. Eichhoefer, a graduate of Greenville and a lay preacher in the Free Methodist Church, returned to his alma mater as a tenured computer-science professor in 1998. But he later became embroiled in a long-running dispute with the religion department over whether professors there were encouraging students to lose their Christian faith. The administration argued that financial problems and Mr. Eichhoefer’s academic weaknesses had contributed to his dismissal, but the AAUP found those arguments wanting and concluded that the college had an unacceptably low tolerance for dissent. Earlier this spring, the college and Mr. Eichhoefer reached a settlement, although the terms have not been made public.