Losing Tenure: Rare, But Not Impossible

It happened to the professor at the Medical School who chopped a colleague into little bits and hid him all over the Longwood campus. It happened to the professor in the who had a mental breakdown and was unable to satisfy his teaching requirements. It even happened to a few professors who committed sexual harrassment.

Though there are University rules governing the loss of tenure, it happens so rarely-and so quietly-that few people can name a case when it occurred.

"There's a clause in all tenure agreements that deals with the capacity to do your duties," says President Neil L. Rudenstine. "It's a clause that has only been invoked a few times by a few institutions."

"It's a very difficult process, and it's designed to be a difficult process," he says.

The design of tenure is to protect academic freedom-and the difficulty of dismissing a professor based on academic work may be best illustrated by the case of John E. Mack, professor of psychiatry at the Medical School.

Mack, who conducts highly controversial alien abduction research, was investigated in 1995 by his colleagues. The Medical School questioned the nature of his research, in which he interviewed people who claimed to have been abducted by aliens, and assumed they were sane and telling the truth.

Despite the inquiry, Mack kept his position. An official release reaffirmed, "Mack's academic freedom to study what he wishes and to state his opinions without impediment." That's exactly the kind of protection tenure is supposed to offer, Faculty members say.

If all research reasons are off limits, what could get you thrown off the Faculty?

"In the case of hard-core sexual harassment by a professor I would want to see that professor dismissed," says Stanley C. Wei '99. "There are other unusual circumstances like embezzlement of University funds that might call for dismissal. But I think that these provisions already exist in tenure contracts."

Causes for dismissal, according to Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles, are violations of the original contract, or "dereliction of duty."

"If the member of the Faculty was not fulfilling their responsibilities [of instruction, research and support of the running of the Faculty], and or was committing "actions against the criminal law.," Knowles says that would be grounds for dismissal.

And Faculty members like Eckehard Simon, chair of the Germanic languages and literatures department, seem to understand where the boundaries are.

"Tenure is not totally safe. You have to conform to the statutes of the University," he says. "[You can be dismissed] if you are academically criminal or [commit] sexual harrassment."

WHY SO RARE?

Faculty dismissals are quite rare, as Faculty and undergraduates alike attest to.

"I didn't know you could lose tenure," said Jared H. Beck '99.

Even James Hankins, professor of history, who teaches Harvard history as part of the department's junior tutorial, couldn't remember a tenure dismissal case off the top of his head. After prompting, he did recall the gruesome Medical School case, where the murderer lost tenure.

Back in the 1850s, John W. Webster, a professor at the Medical School murdered his colleague, Erving Professor of Chemistry and Minerology Dr. George Parkman, after a heated argument in a lab.

According to Simon Schamas book Dead Certainties, Parkman was screaming at Webster and threatened to get him fired. In a fit of rage, Webster picked up a stick of wood (the closest object to him at that time) and hit Parkman over the head with it, killing him.

After realizing that he had killed his colleague, Webster dismembered the corpse, distributed the parts in different areas, cleaned the area and burnt all remaining evidence. According to Hankins, when Webster was convicted, he was relieved of his University duties and position shortly before execution.

Of course, few professors commit such egregious violations of human decency, and Knowles says dismissal would depend on what law was violated.

"It does depend on the crime, and the nature of the proceedings and the process," Knowles says."

Since each Faculty member is required to teach a certain number of classes and periods of leave are restricted, the requirement to serve jail time for any extended period of time would result in the loss of tenure.

In another (less prominent) case, also years ago, a professor suffered a mental break-down, according to Simon. Because that professor lost his sanity, the University placed him on medical leave, which was equivalent to losing tenure.

However, Simon notes that it is only seldom that professors who wind up getting tenured commit acts deserving dismissal. This sentiment is widespread among Faculty and administrators.

"Once you appoint the right people who are dedicated, self correcting, etc., everything else is secondary," Simon says. "It's only when you make a mistake that you have problems."

Annual performance self-reports are part of each department's yearly report to Knowles, says K. Anthony Appiah, chair of the Afro-American studies department. Visiting committees also report on departments, including the Faculty members.

If small violations of the original contract is found, that would be taken into account when the professor's compensation was assessed.

MUM'S THE WORD

"I'm sure professors have done "bad" things in the past, but I don't know for sure that no action was taken against them," Wei says. "I certainly see it as possible that the University might want to keep something like that quiet."

And indeed, the University, sometimes for reasons of privacy and sometimes to avoid negative press, keeps dismissals very quiet.

Rudenstine says that if a professor lost tenure and the news hit the press, it would be a national story and reflect strongly on the University. He says that if the decision was not crystal clear and the school got a reputation for not protecting tenure, faculty recruitment could suffer.

In addition, those professors who lose tenure for mental health reasons have a special interest in keeping the situation quiet.

"The University is very skillful in helping people. You don't want a lot of publicity," Simon says. "It doesn't help anyone. These are personal tragedies. The most hurtful thing you can do is to have a personal tragedy blasted in the newspaper.."

"Harvard does it in a very compassionate manner; whether it's called firing or people leaving on their own is a delicate matter," he adds.