Appeals Court Rules That Alabama Board Had Authority to Fire College President

An Alabama appeals court ruled today that the State Board of Education had the right to fire Susan E. Salatto as president of Southern Union State Community College, according to the Associated Press. The decision reverses a lower-court ruling that said the board had violated the state’s Fair Dismissal Act when it fired her, in 2008, by denying her a hearing to which she was entitled; the lower court also rescinded her dismissal. The chancellor of the two-year-college system at the time said an investigation had found “extraordinarily poor performance” by Ms. Salatto as well as other violations, including alleged nepotism.