Delaware State University’s president, Allen L. Sessoms, and five other university administrators have been stripped of tenure as part of a settlement with the university’s faculty union, according to The News Journal, in Wilmington.

Tenured faculty jobs offer job security for college presidents and are increasingly offered as a hiring perk. But union officials at Delaware State argued that tenure may be awarded only to full-time faculty members engaged in teaching and research, and cannot be granted upon hiring. They asserted in a 2005 grievance that the university’s Board of Trustees had violated the union’s contract by offering tenure to Mr. Sessoms and the five other officials.

According to the terms of the settlement, university administrators may no longer move automatically into faculty positions. They may, however, receive another form of tenure, the benefits of which are unclear.

Mr. Sessoms, who was profiled in 2005 by The Chronicle, has faced controversy of late. Last month a state lawmaker called for his resignation and for that of the university’s governing board. The request came in the wake of a leaked report from an executive search firm, which described the university’s work environment as “toxic.” —Paul Fain