Help Defend Tenure at Manhattan College

Faculty at Manhattan College are seeking to raise funds for legal services to defend tenure rights at Manhattan College and to stop a dangerous precedent for the erosion of tenure across the country.

In violation of rights outlined in the Faculty Handbook, the College’s administration has terminated 62 tenured and tenure-track faculty, the majority of them without proper notification or severance. The Faculty Handbook has clear terms for termination that the administration is both disregarding and misconstruing. In January 2024, President Riverso confirmed that the College would be laying off faculty, and has not done so accordance with the rules outlined in the Faculty Handbook regarding notification and severance.

The Faculty Handbook indicates that tenured and tenure-track faculty with two or more years at the college must be notified by September 1 of the terminal year or be granted severance with health insurance equal to what would have been earned during that notice period. The college has terminated tenured faculty without adhering to either of these provisions.

General Counsel for Manhattan College has argued that the notification timeline in the handbook only applies to untenured faculty. He refers to tenured faculty as “at-will employees” who can be fired without notice or severance. This would suggest that tenured faculty have less job security than untenured faculty and that the awarding of tenure is a demerit rather than an honor they have earned. This willful misinterpretation of the Handbook violates the most basic definition of tenure as outlined in the 1940 AAUP Statement of Principles of Academic Freedom and Tenure.

Please join me in helping them hold Manhattan College accountable, insisting that the college maintain its commitment to the most basic definition of tenure as defined by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) as “an indefinite appointment” and meet its contractual obligations to tenured and tenure-track faculty.

Faculty at the College have raised more than ten thousand dollars internally, but will need your help if they hope to have any success in defending their rights in what may be a protracted legal battle. Collecting funds to support this effort will serve the interests of tenured and tenure-track faculty everywhere who rely on the job security and academic freedom that tenure, by definition, confers.

Faculty at Manhattan College are dedicated to our students and passionate about teaching. We have been lucky to work closely with students, in small classes, seeking to help each student realize their potential. In line with the College’s history and the Lasallian principles of its founders, the Christian Brothers, we have sought to build a vital and supportive community, educate the whole person, and teach with a concern for the poor and disadvantaged. Our jobs–and our ability to serve our students–have been turned upside down by the current Administration. They nonetheless claim that layoffs of faculty, without proper notice or severance, is essential to fixing a financial crisis that faculty did not cause. We want to continue delivering the high quality education that is the primary source of Manhattan College’s excellent reputation and the only secure foundation for its future. If poor planning by the administration has meant that the college is facing challenges, the very least the college can do is follow its own mission and their contractual obligations with regard to faculty who will be made to pay the price.

All funds collected will be placed in an account dedicated solely to this effort. The faculty have begun to take legal action. In the case that there are leftover funds following legal action, they will be held by Manhattan College faculty for this purpose, and then any remaining funds will be donated to the American Association of University Professors when the College's shared governance issues are resolved.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT--whether by donation, or by sharing this information with others. This cause is bigger than what is happening at Manhattan College and we stand in solidarity with faculty everywhere.