LA Times Discloses ID of Tenured UC Tenured Faculty Member Regents May Fire

Perhaps firing a tenured faculty member is not quite as explosive as the atomic test the Regents in the photo on the left are shown getting ready to attend (1956).  Nonetheless, such firings are unusual.  One suspects that there are other such cases that lead to resignation settlements that are not widely reported.

From the LA Times today:

The University of California Board of Regents is scheduled this week to discuss a highly unusual proposal to fire a veteran tenured professor and deny him the perks of emeritus retirement.  The case involves a UC Riverside international finance professor who has been in lengthy court disputes over UC allegations that he improperly received outside income during sabbaticals.  Because of confidentiality rules covering personnel actions, the regents' agenda item mentions only an unnamed UC Riverside professor; it does not give a reason for the possible discipline. University officials refuse to release those details, saying that would violate privacy rules. However, Sarkis Joseph Khoury and one of his attorneys confirm that he is the professor in question and contend that the regents' discussion is the result of his long-term disagreements over his sabbaticals; his Republican political views and Lebanese heritage; and his advocacy for hiring minority professors, among other matters…

In roughly the last two decades, regents have dismissed half a dozen tenured faculty members for various reasons, UC system spokesman Steve Montiel said…

Full story by reporter Larry Gordon is at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-uc-prof-20120116,0,5155277.story

An earlier post on this blog reproduced the Regents’ upcoming agenda.  The specific item above is at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/jan12/edpolx.pdf