Is Tenure a Contract?

Here’s one for all the professors out there: Smith v. Board of Supervisors for the University of Louisiana System, Civil Action Case No. 13-5505 Section: “G” (3), out of the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Steven Smith was a tenured professor at the University of New Orleans (“UNO”). Smith alleged a series of disagreements / misunderstandings that eventually led to Smith being committed to teaching the spring 2012 semester at both UNO and a Brazilian university, the Federal University of Bahia (“UFBA”). Smith attempted to resolve the conflict by pushing his start date at UFBA to the last two weeks of his semester at UNO. He had his students at UNO use the final two weeks to work on final projects, which would be submitted to him electronically while he was in Brazil at UFBA. Smith alleged that there was further miscommunication between him and UNO administration about Smith’s schedule and whether or not it was acceptable. As a result, Smith stated that he was threatened numerous times with termination. Eventually, he was encouraged to resign and did so.

Smith sued asserting several causes of action, including breach of contract. The Board responded by arguing that Smith and the Board never entered into a contract at all.

Smith first pointed to the faculty handbook and UNO bylaws as the contract between himself and the Board. However, the faculty handbook explicitly stated that it “should not be construed as a formal contractual agreement between the University and its faculty.” The court therefore found that the handbook did not constitute a contract.

That was not the end of Smith’s contract claims, however, and that’s where the tenure issue comes in. Smith argued that his tenure provided him with “a contractual right to continued employment.” To support his argument, Smith pointed to the definition of “tenure” in Black’s Law Dictionary as well as a number of statements made to Smith when he was granted tenure. The Board made no argument in opposition, leading the court to conclude that, “[a]lthough there was no specific written tenure contract, the parties appear to agree that Smith’s achieving tenure meant that he was no longer an at-will employee.” Accordingly, the court found that tenure was a contract between Smith and the Board. Whether or not this contract had been breached was a genuine issue of material fact precluding summary judgment.