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[mouse66]

I don't know if many people are aware of the effect that state budget cuts have had on non-tenured and non-tenure eligible faculty members, a vital resource in institutions in higher education allowing tenured faculty members to do their jobs. But, the treatment of Adjunct and Fixed-Term professors at Penn State University in the past few months has been particularly despicable.

In my case, I had a "three-year contract, renewable pending satisfactory performance and by mutual consent." On April 29th, upon the completion of my second year of employment and with exemplary job performance reviews, I was notified that the Department of Applied Linguistics in the College of Liberal Arts would be unable to reappoint me for a third year due to "budget limitations and changing program needs." In essence, I was fired without adequate cause. My Department Head claims that it was within the rights of the University to terminate my employment because my three-year contract is "renewable on an annual basis" and because budget cuts have been unavoidable across campus.

My argument is that this is ludicrous for three reasons. First, nowhere in my employment documents does it state anything about renewable on an annual basis.  Second, a three-year contract that is renewable each year is ludicrous and not legally tenable. That is, a contract is ONLY up for renewal at the end of the contract not before--something any landlord or tenant understands. In my case, in fact, the employment documents state that budget limitations and changing program needs only apply as conditions for renewal AFTER three years but that my contract can be terminated at any time "for cause." According to Penn State HR policy and commensurate with the 1940 Statement of Principles on Tenure and Academic Freedom, the term "cause" refers to issues related to (a) moral turpitude, (b) unsatisfactory job performance, or (c) unprofessional behavior in the workplace. Third, and most importantly, budget limitations do not absolve Penn State from its contractual obligations.

In response to these arguments, the Golaith Penn State has stonewalled me at every turn and has forced me not only to pursue a lawsuit but also to alert every media outlet available to me and to seek out support from the AAUP and federal resources. This is what I find most despicable: not merely that I was fired without cause, but that I was fired without the professional courtesy and respect I deserve, without due attention to administrative rigor, and without even the remotest consideration of my rights as an employee.

Any thoughts or advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

[recruited]

Which campus?

[fiona]

I think they did something they had to do, financially, and you're not helping yourself psychologically or professionally by dwelling on it.

Carrying on and trying to fight it will cost you the good will and future recommendations that you need.

Your situation has happened to hundreds of people, as you can see on other threads and throughout the Net.

I think you should put it behind you and seek another job.

The Fiona

[mouse66]

This is the University Park campus in State College, PA.

[mouse66]

Thanks, Fiona, for your comments. Considering that this is such a widespread problem, shouldn't somebody stand up for themselves instead of quietly allowing universities to do this? What about the next person who encounters a similar injustice?

[bioteacher]

I'm sure the legal team at PSU believes your contract was not renewed because there was not mutual consent. They do not give the consent, therefore it is not mutual. End of story.

It's unfortunate. But I don't think you meet the criteria needed for a legal case. And getting public to express outrage on your behalf over this given the nature of how the public views academia anyway......well, you're more likely to successfully nail jell-o to the wall.

You have finite resources of time, energy, and money. I suggest you invest those resources into securing employment. Being a martyr is all well and good, but it doesn't pay the bills.

[fiona]

Thanks, Fiona, for your comments. Considering that this is such a widespread problem, shouldn't somebody stand up for themselves instead of quietly allowing universities to do this? What about the next person who encounters a similar injustice?

Read Isaac Sweeney's columns about this. You can yell and scream all you want. Go ahead.

It will not make any difference. The problem is money. There is no money. There is no money.

The Fiona

[tinyzombie]

Thanks, Fiona, for your comments. Considering that this is such a widespread problem, shouldn't somebody stand up for themselves instead of quietly allowing universities to do this? What about the next person who encounters a similar injustice?

Read Isaac Sweeney's columns about this. You can yell and scream all you want. Go ahead.

It will not make any difference. The problem is money. There is no money. There is no money.

The Fiona

Yeah, running out of money actually is "adequate case," it seems to me, OP, unless you'd prefer to work for free?

[tenured_feminist]

Mouse, while I feel for you, I have to say that what you report is in no way extraordinary in state systems across the country.

Over the last five years, my college has lost twenty-one percent of its operating budget. At first, it wasn't so bad -- we could do it with a nibble here and a nibble there, a little more efficiency, a little more consolidation. Then it got harder and we had to realize the cost savings by whacking administrative and support staff to the bone or beyond. My department (now 20 faculty, about 80 grad students, and around 400 undergrad majors) runs on the backs of one and three-quarters staff support. At around the same time, we stopped hiring to replace people who had left or retired, so in my department that's five and in our sister department, it will be about eight this fall, these lines presumably gone forever.

We still have managed to hold on to a few long-term adjuncts, but all of our short-termers are gone and when we can, we use funded grad students to teach independently if they're candidates. The next step, which I don't even want to contemplate, is telling solidly performing untenured but tenure-track faculty that we are non-renewing them when their contracts expire at third-year review. (It's either that or shoot the two highest paid members of the department, dump their bodies in the river, and feed their salary savings to the budget gap.)

It's as bad as I've ever seen or hopefully ever will see.

Take care of yourself. I know you're angry, but don't let your anger poison your life or allow yourself to descend into bitterness. Start thinking about what moving on would look like. What positive, proactive, forward thinking steps can you take now to try to put your career on a better footing for the future?

[alleyoxenfree]

You should immediately have your contract reviewed by an attorney with employment experience.

They will tell you quite candidly whether you have any grounds to work out a settlement, such as a final year of teaching.  It sounds like Penn State is doing what a lot of other places are doing, replacing longer-term contract teachers with one-year contracts.  Your contract may well get you a final year of teaching, although not being renewed, or it may get you even more....but you need an attorney to look at it.

That attorney will probably tell you NOT to go to the media, but again, see them FIRST before you do anything further.

What you need to think about, after hiring an attorney to review your contract - which they should do for a consult fee (and some will provide a consult for free) - is to think about this phrase - "professional courtesy and respect I deserve, without due attention to administrative rigor, and without even the remotest consideration of my rights as an employee."  

Have you paid any attention to what is happening in academia, the country, and the world?  The trend has been, since Reagan, away from any consideration for law, ethics, morality, workers, any professional courtesy or respect, and so on.  Perhaps you are a white male or from an upper-class family, and just now noticing this.
If so, you need to get over your shock (because you thought you had a contract, worked in a classy joint, and hoped to be reappointed), and your hurt feelings, take legal advice, and consider what you want out of this situation.  

EVEN IF your attorney says you have grounds to sue, most attorneys will not work on a contingency basis, so you will need $15-20,000 just to go to initial stages of trial, much more if the proceedings are protracted or there is an appeal.  Penn State and its attorneys know this - which MAY be why they MAY be willing to terminate you even if it's illegal.  They're big.  Do you have the money, as well as the time and energy to counter that?  If not, all morality aside, you are better off recovering from your shock and lining up letters of recommendation to go on the market.  

Depending on your contract, your attorney may or may not be able to NEGOTIATE for you a final year of teaching, given how late it is in the year to go on the market.  But again, it will depend on what they think when they read your contract.  To find a good attorney, see if your state bar has an employment lawyer's group, with lawyers that work for employees (not all do).  Or google to see who has successfully handled employment cases against Penn State in the past.  

Cut down on the caffeine and keep a cool head in all meetings, be pleasant and professional, and focus all YOUR energies (let your lawyer do his/her job) on looking for a great new job.  Good luck.

[tenured_feminist]

If the contract is by its own terms renewable annually for a term of three years, you're spitting in the wind. It may be worth having an attorney look at it if you can get one to do so for free, but I sure wouldn't plow a lot of resources into pursuing this if I were you.

[recruited]

Well, that certainly sucks, but unfortunately, I don't think you have a case.

I am moving to Penn state this fall.  They are actually still hiring, but only for the right targeted programs (i.e. high-level research that brings in lots of external funding).  That said, money is very tight, especially looking at the major cuts to their already small state appropriations.  I negotiated my offer when the money issues weren't so bad.  They are honoring the offer, with all the perks, but its become painful for them to do so (although the overhead I'm bringing with me balances it out somewhat).  I would guess that Applied Linguistics doesn't have those options, particularly for non-TT faculty.

[alleyoxenfree]

Somehow Bridget Jones' "smug marrieds" springs inexorably to mind, recruited.

Most married people eventually learn not to count on their chickens, even after they think they've hatched.

[mouse66]

I really do appreciate the sobering comments everybody has been posting--even the very harsh ones. My attorney assures me that I do have a case here but she advises me that that a lawsuit will be costly, as many of you have suggested. And, even if I sue, I won't get very much. In fact, it is perhaps more cost effective for Penn State if I sue as opposed to the university offering a severance package.

While I am certainly not a stranger to discrimination and unfair treatment in my life, I am painfully resigned at this point to rolling over, taking up the backside, and skulking away. Lesson well learned: if universities treat non-TT faculty this way despite clear and unambiguous contractual terms, then I feel compelled to re-evaluate the level of professional commitment I am able to devote to any department in which I may work in the future.

Fiona, thanks for the Isaac Sweeney reference. Like Sweeney, I mourn the loss of a university's commitment to the quality of education.  Money is certainly money, and I understand the need for cuts to be made. But a contract is a contract is a contract. Oh well. I AM ABSOLUTELY DONE WITH THIS! Who is next?

[recruited]

Somehow Bridget Jones' "smug marrieds" springs inexorably to mind, recruited.

Most married people eventually learn not to count on their chickens, even after they think they've hatched.

You may be right :)  But I hope not.

And I do sympathize with the OP. They don't have a legal case but they do have a moral one, in my opinion.  Unfortunately, its the people that lack protection of tenure or an airtight contract that take it in the shorts during times like these.  I think that "Mutual consent" clause is the killer.

In the sciences, things can get bad, but comparatively we are insulated a bit more than the humanities.  When if a University decides to get rid of me, the fact that I will take several million dollars in grant funding with me tends to give me options, whether I stay or go.

Because of this, I sometimes feel that maybe those in the humanities or other fields with no large grants should possibly get even stronger contracts than those in STEM fields, because they lack that intrinsic protection that external funding provides.  Unfortunately, I don't see it happening now that financial considerations are trumping everything else.