Court in Colorado Finds Metropolitan State College of Denver's Tenure Changes Invalid

A Colorado court has invalidated the changes made in the Metropolitan State College of Denver’s handbook in 2003, saying that they were unconstitutional and that the terms of tenure that faculty members had under an earlier version of the handbook were vested rights.

Five tenured professors and the Colorado Federation of Teachers sued the college, whose 1994 faculty handbook said that in the event of layoffs nontenured faculty members would be laid off before their tenured peers. In addition, if layoffs reached the ranks of tenured faculty members, the institution would make “every reasonable effort” to find such faculty members another position at the institution, the old handbook said.

The 2003 handbook, however, stripped faculty members of such protections and, instead, listed factors the president of the college must consider when deciding whom to lay off. Also altered were the hearing procedures for professors who were dismissed for cause or laid off.

The professors who filed the lawsuit said that the changes shouldn’t apply to faculty members who received tenure before the 2003 handbook took effect.

A trial court originally said there wasn’t a breach of contract. But an appeals court reversed that ruling and then sent it back to the trial court to determine whether the changes in tenure in the handbook were retrospective. —Audrey Williams June