Legal aspects of academic freedom and tenure in community colleges

Academic freedom is an issue dating back to the time of Plato. Tenure has been linked with academic freedom for at least a century. The relationship between academic freedom and tenure is still debated as is the issue of academic freedom for nontenured faculty members. While states have tenure laws for public school teachers, only seventeen states have legislative enactments concerning tenure for community college faculty. Faced with a lack of pertinent legislation, some community colleges have developed their own tenure systems. In the many community colleges that have no tenure systems, administrators face the problem of safeguarding faculty rights while effectively administering their institutions. It is the purpose of this study to provide community college administrators with guidelines to help them recognize teacher rights so they may avoid wrongful dismissals with the accompanying damage to academic freedom. Damage to the community college may occur as a result of litigation resulting from dismissals and nonrenewals. This study, through analysis of state statutes and judicial decisions also provides a set of guidelines that community college administrators will find helpful in making dismissal and nonrenewal decisions