The following is an excerpt from my book (co-authored with Jose Briceno), yet to be submitted for publication, called "Good Grief." Jose and I wrote this based on our experience as faculty advocates; however, neither of us are attorneys. If readers have specific questions about the law, they should find an attorney.
Nonrenewals are a special case, and so we’ve saved the topic for its own section here. Current legal wisdom holds that the nonrenewal of higher education faculty members’ contracts is not an adverse action. They are not being terminated or fired; their contracts are simply allowed to expire. Nobody did anything—right? Administrators don’t even have to tell you why they didn’t do anything! The problem is that faculty who are non-renewed sure feel fired and sure feel like somebody did something to them. Everybody knows that administrators will often non-renew faculty members rather than fire them because it is a much safer legal path to take.
Secure in the knowledge that they did not have to say anything to anyone, many administrators also refused to allow nonrenewal grievances in the past. After all, nobody did anything, right? A few years ago, however, a union found a lawmaker to sponsor legislation at least giving faculty members the right to be heard when they are nonrenewed. Texas Education Code §51.960 states
(b) A faculty member at an institution of higher education has a right to present a grievance, in person,
to a member of the institution's administration designated by the governing board of the institution on an
issue related to the nonrenewal or termination of the faculty member's employment at the institution
[emphasis mine].The underlined wording in the paragraph above is important. All this law does is guarantee that you get to sit down and talk with an administrator. It doesn’t guarantee you a full hearing or anything else approaching due process. You get an audience—period. That audience doesn’t have to speak, either. All it says is that someone has to listen to you. Don’t be surprised if your words fall on deaf ears. As often as not, you’ll be talking to someone who was in on the decision to nonrenew you in the first place. That said, don’t waste the opportunity. You never know when you might just say something that will get administration’s attention. Go in and present the argument as if you believe you can accomplish some good in there. You may surprise yourself.
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