REGENTS’ POLICY MANUAL, SECTION 2—ACADEMICS

(AND FACULTY HANDBOOK, SECTION 3.8.1-3.8.2)

A change was made in the regents’ policy manual to place the provision allowing termination of a tenured appointment on the grounds of financial emergency among the instances calling for severe sanctions. It was included there as a matter of convenience so one might avoid having to go through the entire manual to discover the typical limitations on tenured appointments. Legal Counsel and Faculty Senate officers agreed to segregate that situation and one having to do with changes in the University’s educational function, which were clearly not the result of faculty misconduct, from the others and include a brief introduction to the two subsections.

Grounds for Abrogation of Tenure, Dismissal, and OTHER Severe Sanctions

A faculty member against whom the imposition of a severe sanction is to be brought or whose dismissal is to be requested must have given such cause for the action as relates directly and substantially to his or her professional capabilities or performance. It is not possible to specify all proper grounds for these drastic measures. Proper reasons for dismissal of a faculty member who has tenure or whose tenure-track or renewable term/consecutive term appointment has not expired include the following:

a) Professional incompetence or dishonesty;

b) Substantial, manifest, or repeated failure to fulfill professional duties or responsibilities;

c) Personal behavior preventing the faculty member from satisfactory fulfillment of professional duties or responsibilities;

d) Substantial, manifest, or repeated failure to adhere to University policies; including, for example, the University’s Compliance Program.

e) Serious violations of law which are admitted or proved before a court of competent jurisdiction or the administrative hearing body established to hear such matters, which prevent the faculty member from satisfactory fulfillment of professional duties or responsibilities, or violations of a court order, when such order relates to the faculty member’s proper performance of professional responsibilities;

f) For any Health Sciences Center faculty member, being placed on the United States Department of Health and Human Services’ list of excluded individuals and entities, in which case the University will take quick and decisive action by terminating the faculty member’s employment. The faculty member may request a Faculty Appeals Board Hearing following termination.

Subparagraphs (g) and (h), below, are not severe sanctions but nevertheless are valid reasons for terminating employment of a faculty member who has tenure or whose tenure-track, renewable term, or consecutive term appointment has not expired.

g) Changes in the University’s educational function through action of the Board of Regents and/or the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education which result in the elimination of an academic unit. In such instances, the University will make every reasonable effort to reassign affected faculty members to positions for which they are properly qualified before dismissal results from such elimination.

h) Financial emergency as set forth hereinafter in the Financial Emergency Policy in Section 4. [of Regents’ Policy Manual]