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Faculty Tenure, Contract Rights, and Academic Freedom!

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Summary of Frisella, et al. v. Dallas College:

This is a multi-plaintiff lawsuit against Dallas College, brought by three Dallas College professors: Professor Sal Frisella, Professor Paul Day, and Professor Howard “Jeff” Hughes. Tenure systems exist to protect Academic Freedom (a special concern of our Constitutional right to Free Speech) and other 1st Amendment rights of faculty so they may effectively serve as the academic watchdogs of their institutions for the benefit of society. This lawsuit addresses faculty rights under the new state tenure law (Texas Education Code 51.942, formerly "SB 18"). The outcome of this case could have broad-ranging implications for higher education faculty across the state of Texas. Most Dallas College full-time faculty were hired under long-standing institutional policies and practices that afforded the faculty "rolling" 3-year contracts, wherein the faculty were always in the first year of a 3-year contract. Board members, administrators, and the college's own counsel recognized that the rolling contract constituted "quasi tenure" and conferred a vested property interest that was "virtually perpetual," and which could not be removed without due process.

 

In 2022, without showing good cause through due process, Dallas College changed its policies to remove the rolling 3-year contract provision, along with gutting policies that provided stringent due process procedures for all Dallas College full-time faculty, defaulting everyone to 1-year contracts. Further, Dallas College removed the rolling 3-year contracts, at least in part, allegedly as a form of collective punishment and prior restraint on account of some faculty exercising their 1st Amendment rights in conducting a no confidence vote against the Chancellor, establishing an external local AAUP chapter, advocating for the creation of a faculty senate, and sending letters to the Board of Trustees in protest of bad administrative actions. Dallas College’s wrongful actions against its full-time faculty violated Plaintiffs’ property and liberty interests in their rolling 3-year contracts (which meet the definition of tenure under Texas Education Code 51.942), committed breach of contract, and violated the Texas Open Meetings Act (TOMA).

 

Many public colleges and universities are fast-becoming corporatized degree mills at the hands of money- and power-focused administrations. These administrations invoke policies, procedures, and intimidation tactics aimed at diminishing the faculty’s role in institutional governance, academic oversight, and the ability of the faculty to speak out against bad administrative practices without fear of retaliation. This lawsuit has the potential to be a gamechanger in helping to set Texas higher education back on the right course. We need your support to ensure we have the funding necessary to carry this historic lawsuit through U.S. District Court and through any appeals thereafter. Please contribute what you can to this effort (every bit helps!) and spread the word so the faculty of Texas can continue to have contracts and working conditions that protect the integrity of higher education for our students and the public.