Higher Education Administration
Serving as a higher education administrator can be a privileged position. Tenured, tenure-track, and adjunct classroom and clinical professors rightly believe that their teaching represents the heart of higher education. But higher education runs on administrators, not professors and instructors. A college or university simply won't function without vice presidents, provosts, deans, associate and assistant deans, directors, coordinators, and program leaders.
Colleges and universities are extraordinarily complex and highly regulated institutions. Skilled and experienced administrators must creatively design and diligently maintain the administrative structure and systems necessary to meet student interests, licensing and certification standards, employer requirements, accreditor demands, and financial imperatives. A higher education administrator's job isn't easy and is never done. The Lento Law Firm assists university administrators nationwide. Call 888.535.3686 or reach out through our online form.
The Peril of Administrator Non-Renewal
You don't always see a job termination coming, especially as a higher education administrator. A school's need for administrative positions and roles can change quickly as the school responds to enrollment fluctuation and program reforms. One minute, the school critically requires your services. The next minute, it no longer does, instead critically needing the services of someone else. Or so your school's leaders may mistakenly believe as they steer the ship, when they may not know what you actually do to keep the school running. But when it happens, non-renewal can hurt professionally, personally, and financially. Losing a job is seldom easy. When you don't see it coming and don't have a reason for why it happens, the pain can compound.
An Administrator's Legal Rights and Relationship
Administrators don't generally enjoy tenure protections. Colleges and universities tend instead to employ administrators by contract. And for many administrators, the contracts have no definite duration. On the contrary, many schools expressly employ administrators at will, meaning without a promise of continued employment. At-will employment generally means that if the school wants you and you show up for work, then you get paid. But if the school no longer wants you, you have no work and don't get paid. If you are employed at will, the school may generally terminate your employment at its own discretion. Your letter of hire and any employment policy or handbook should clearly state whether you are at will or, on the other hand, employed for a specific duration or with dismissal for good cause only. It's likely the former, at-will employment, rather than the latter.
Reasons for Non-Renewal
But even if you are employed at will, the reasons for your non-renewal can be important to your legal rights and practical protections. If your school employs you at will, then it may terminate your employment for no reason or for any lawful reason, but it may not terminate you for illegal reasons. Try to find out why your school is letting you go. Ask your supervisor for the reasons. Then, no matter the answer, quietly ask around, especially among colleagues who value and respect you. Preserve emails, texts, notes, and any other record of the reasons. Your legal or practical recourse may depend on that evidence.
Permissible Reasons for Non-Renewal
Some non-renewal reasons are generally permissible. The primary permissible reason is an economic reduction in force due to decreased enrollment. But job incompetence and job misconduct are other reasons. If you don't do your job, like not showing up for work or doing your work incorrectly, and the school's corrective action procedure did not fix your problem, your school can generally let you go. If you violate your school's employment rules in ways that damage your school's interests, such as harassing subordinates or retaliating against students, your school can generally let you go.
Impermissible Reasons for Non-Renewal
Other reasons, though, can trigger legal protections warranting reinstatement. Unlawful discrimination is the primary impermissible reason. Schools may terminate poor employees, but they may not terminate based on race, ethnicity, religion, sex, age, disability, military or veteran status, whistleblowing (reporting or threatening to report suspected school law violations), and other protected categories and characteristics. Schools, especially public colleges and universities, must also generally not terminate for cause without affording the employee due process, telling you the grounds, and giving you an opportunity to contest them. And from a management rather than legal standpoint, schools should also generally not terminate on a whim, capriciously, in ways that undermine the trust, loyalty, and commitment of other employees.
Negotiating Administrator Retention
The Lento Law Firm's Education Law Team may be able to help you if you face or have already suffered non-renewal. Your prospects for retention or reinstatement are better if the school's reasons for your non-renewal were illegal, nefarious, or poor management. We may be able to show school officials that the school's actions have created legal liability, regulatory risk, and employee morale issues. Our communication, advocacy, and negotiation may not even be with your supervisor or the school official who terminated you. We may instead reach and advocate with school oversight officials in the school's general counsel office or with outside retained counsel.
But you may be able to preserve your job or gain equivalent employment even if you do not have a legal or equitable cause for relief. Sometimes, employers respond to an employee's needs, not just to the employer's needs and interests. We may be able to help you demonstrate your compelling grounds for retention or reinstatement, whether or not you have a legal leg on which to stand. Don't give up your fight for a valuable administrative job. It can be hard starting over.
Premier Education Law Services
The Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team is available to represent you, whatever the nature of your administrative role, the public or private status of your school, or your location across the country. We have helped hundreds of college and university employees successfully retain or regain their employment. Call 888.535.3686 or tell us about your case now.
