Tenured Faculty Member Denied Rights
The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill acted improperly in its treatment of a tenured faculty member.
The North Carolina Court of Appeals
This case requires this Court, as it required the trial court and the University, to resolve an unusual and controversial dispute that tests the University’s responsibilities as an employer of tenured faculty and as a steward of public funds. After careful consideration and review of the record, we conclude that the University failed to properly apply its policies for the protection of tenured faculty. We reverse the trial court’s order and remand for further proceedings.
The facts
Frampton was a nine-month tenured faculty member in the Department of Physics and Astronomy who had taught at UNC since January 1981. On 23 January 2012, Frampton was arrested at an airport in Argentina and charged with attempting to smuggle two kilograms of cocaine in his suitcase. Although Frampton was assigned to teach a physics course at UNC at that time, he had traveled to Argentina without notifying UNC and without making arrangements for another professor to cover the class. Ultimately, on or around 20 November 2012, Frampton was convicted of smuggling cocaine and sentenced to four years and eight months imprisonment in Argentina. UNC learned of Frampton’s arrest on 26 January, over two weeks after the first scheduled class meeting of PHYS 832, a reading course on general relativity that Frampton was expected to teach during the spring of 2012. Frampton has, at all times, maintained that he is an innocent victim of an Internet scam involving an alleged romantic involvement with an Italian swimsuit model.
Holding
we conclude that UNC violated its own policies when it placed Frampton on unpaid personal leave instead of initiating formal disciplinary proceedings in accordance with the tenure policies. Therefore, we must reverse the trial court’s order and remand for the trial court to determine the date on which Frampton’s employment was terminated and to determine the amount of salary and benefits which were withheld and should be paid to Frampton. Based on this conclusion, it is not necessary to address Frampton’s remaining arguments on appeal.
This coverage from the New York Times. (Mike Frisch)