About 200 members of the American Association of University Professors voted unanimously on Saturday to put Vermont Law School on the sanctioned school list for violating academic freedom.
The list, shared publicly, could hurt the law school’s ability to recruit future faculty and students. The school’s accreditation with the American Bar Association could also be at risk.
“We don’t like to see an institution where the climate for shared governance seems to be severely lacking,” AAUP Program Officer Anita Levy said.
Three AAUP board members visited VLS in December and interviewed more than 20 faculty members after learning that 14 of 19 professors were stripped of tenure last summer without their input.
Tenure faculty said they were presented two options last year — continue teaching at VLS under a new contract and sign a nondisclosure and non-disparagement agreement — or be fired.
The AAUP investigation said there was a “breakdown of trust” within the law school community due to the administration’s “failure to comprehend why providing data and asking for input do not, by themselves, constitute meaningful collaborative decision-making.”
Craig Pease, a former professor who was fired last July, urged AAUP members to vote in favor of sanctioning VLS at the AAUP’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
“I said flat out that Dean Tom McHenry and Board of Trustees Chair Colleen Connor are tyrant, fools, dishonest, cowards and hypocrites,” Pease said in an interview.
In a copy of his statement, Pease called McHenry and Connor “fools” for “destroying” a world-renowned institution, which is consistently ranked as the nation’s top environmental law school.
Pease accused McHenry, who is also VLS president, and Connor of making “deceptive” and incomplete statements about VLS’ finances. Pease called both leaders “tyrants” for violating shared governance and “hypocrites” for continuing to market VLS as being socially progressive school. Pease also said McHenry and Connor are “cowards” for restructuring the faculty without first consulting the school’s Tenure Committee.
“The motion to sanction was really a call for higher education faculty everywhere to use their knowledge and position to help build a society grounded in truth, honesty and reason,” Pease said.
McHenry has said faculty were terminated as part of a “restructuring” process to find savings at a time when VLS faced an operating deficit of around $2 million in fiscal year 2018-19.
“We are disappointed by the AAUP’s action and the process by which the AAUP reached its conclusions,” McHenry said in a statement. “It is important to remember that the AAUP is an advocacy organization and is not involved in the accreditation of Vermont Law School.”
This is the first time a free-standing law school has been put on the sanctioned list, Levy said.
VLS is scheduled for an accreditation review by the Amercan Bar Association this school year.
“We don’t know how the ABA will view the administration’s actions when it comes time to review them for reaccreditation,” Levy said.
The ABA makes accreditation decisions independently of the AAUP, but ABA standards require that law schools have established policy regarding academic freedom and tenure.
“I’m concerned for the current faculty who are teaching there,” Levy said. She said academic freedom is “critical for faculty to teach and research to the highest standards.”
