Academic freedom and tenure--Lawrence Technological University (Michigan)

Academe, May/Jun 1998 by Scholtz, Gregory, Pearson, Donald W

Academic Freedom and Tenure Lawrence Technological University (Michigan)1

I. Introduction

This report concerns actions taken by the administration of Lawrence Technological University to terminate the appointment of Professor Ernest L. Maier following a decision to discontinue the undergraduate programs in business management.

Founded in 1932 as Lawrence Institute of Technology, Lawrence Technological University (commonly called Lawrence Tech or LTU) is a private institution, located in suburban Detroit, with a coeducational student body numbering approximately five thousand. Its board of trustees is drawn entirely from the local business community, particularly the automobile industry; the chair of the governing board, Dr. Lloyd E. Reuss, formerly served as vice president of General Motors Corporation. The institution's 1996-98 catalog maintains that "there is an unusually close interaction between the University and the professions that attract its students and graduates." The university's motto, "Theory and Practice," indicates the emphasis placed on on-the-job experience as a necessary adjunct to classroom education. Accredited since 1967 by the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, Lawrence Tech consists of four colleges: Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Management. The university has a variety of bachelor's and master's degree programs, nearly all of which are offered in the evening as well as during daytime hours in order to accommodate the schedules of students who are in the workforce. During the 1996-97 academic year, the full-time faculty numbered 88. The university catalog also lists 241 part-time lecturers, not all of whom teach every term; most appear to be employed full-time in business or industry.

Dr. Charles M. Chambers was appointed president and chief executive officer of Lawrence Technological University in 1993. He holds B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in physics from the University of Alabama and a J.D. degree from George Washington University. Prior to assuming the presidency of Lawrence Tech, he served as a member of the administration at George Washington University. He is a past president of the American Association of University Administrators.

Mr. Ernest L. Maier was a professor of marketing at Lawrence Tech from fall 1971 until January 1997, when the events that are the substance of this case took place. He holds a B.S. degree in marketing and an M.B.A. degree from the University of Detroit. From 1961 to 1963 he was a Ph.D. candidate in marketing and economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. At Wayne State University, where he served for three years prior to joining the faculty of Lawrence Tech, Professor Maier taught graduate and undergraduate courses in marketing. Prior to joining the Lawrence Tech faculty, he worked for over four years as a marketing representative with IBM. At Lawrence Tech he served as a consultant on marketing projects in the United States and abroad and authored or co-authored numerous publications in management, including two textbooks published respectively by McGraw-Hill and Prentice-Hall. He also founded and managed several businesses, the sort of outside professional activity encouraged by the university administration. Professor Maier is listed in the 1996-98 catalog as a lecturer in architecture as well as a professor in the College of Management.

II. The Events

The Action Against Professor Maier

On January 6, 1997, Professor Maier, a tenured full professor of marketing with twenty-five years of service at Lawrence Technological University, was called at home and told that he should come to the dean's office. He was informed there by Interim Dean Louis A. DeGennaro that his position in the College of Management was being terminated on grounds of program discontinuation. The executive committee of the board of trustees had that same day passed a resolution, effective immediately, "that the undergraduate programs in the College of Management be discontinued" because of long-term declining enrollments. Professor Maier was relieved of all teaching duties for the spring semester, which was scheduled to begin January 13, and his courses were reassigned to others. While informed that he would receive twelve additional months of salary and benefits, Professor Maier was told to vacate his office by January 10, which he did, though under protest. He was offered financial assistance, "up to a total amount of $5,000," to reimburse him for expenses incurred in his search for new employment.

In his January 6 letter of notification to Professor Maier, Dean DeGennaro stated that, while the College of Management would cease to exist as an undergraduate-degree-granting entity, the university would continue to offer undergraduate courses in management in order to allow current students to complete their bachelor's degrees. The administration of these courses, however, would be shifted to the Colleges of Engineering and Arts and Sciences. Dean DeGennaro went on to state that, in accordance with provisions in the faculty handbook, a committee consisting of the provost and the college deans had reviewed Professor Maier's credentials in order to determine to which of these two colleges he could be reassigned. According to the interim dean, this group had concluded that "no reassignment is possible." (Not mentioned in the letter of notification was that the committee of deans had determined that two other faculty members-both of them tenured-could not be reassigned and that their appointments were also terminated. They chose not to bring their cases to the Association's attention.) Dean DeGennaro did not attempt to reconcile Professor Maier's relief from any further teaching with the fact that all of his regularly assigned courses continued to be offered. In closing, Dean DeGennaro advised Professor Maier that he could request a hearing before this same administrative body if he wished to appeal its decision.