ABSTRACT

Faculty members in public universities may have employment security on five legal bases: (1) an annual contract; (2) tenure contract under state statutory and administrative regulation; (3) federal due process interests; (4) federal civil rights protections; and (5) labor contract rights. Each of these conditions is discussed below. The first, the normal employment contract, is governed by common law contract precedents and state statutory provisions that provide for the expenditure of public funds for the salaries paid for work done by a public university teacher. The second of these relationships is a tenure contract that provides for continuing employment with no specified termination date. Third and fourth among these relationships, perhaps the most pervasive and overarching, are the due process interests of the federal constitution and the federal statutory employment protections against job discrimination primarily found in the Equal Protection Clause and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This chapter deals with the first two of these relationships, the common contract, and the tenure contract.