2023 New York Laws › EDN - Education › Title 7 - State and City Colleges and Institutions-Cornell University › Article 125 - City University of New York › 6212 - Tenure.

§ 6212. Tenure.  1.  The following words and phrases, for the purposes
  of this section, shall have the following meanings:
a. "Educational  unit"  shall  mean  a  college,  school,  preparatory
  school, high school, or model school.
b.  "Instructional staff" shall mean the persons employed by the board
  of trustees in the educational units governed and administered by it  in
  the  grades  or  positions  of  president,  dean,  director,  professor,
  associate professor, assistant professor, instructor, fellow,  lecturer,
  senior  registrar,  registrar, assistant registrar, associate registrar,
  college laboratory technicians; in the high  school  and  model  school:
  principal,  first  assistant, supervisor, instructor, assistant teacher,
  critic teacher, teacher; or in any grade or position which the board  of
  trustees in its discretion may add thereto.
c.  "Tenure"  shall  mean  the  right of a person to hold his position
  during good behavior and efficient and competent service, and not to  be
  removed therefrom except for cause in the manner hereinafter provided.
2. All members of the permanent instructional staff of the educational
  units  governed  and  administered  by  the board of trustees shall have
  tenure.
3. The permanent instructional staff  shall  consist  of  all  persons
  employed  by  the  city  university  on  an  annual  salary basis at the
  educational units governed and administered by the board of trustees  as
  follows:  (a) in the grades of professor, associate professor, assistant
  professor, or in any grade or position which the board in its discretion
  may add thereto, who, after serving on an annual salary in  any  of  the
  grades  or  positions  enumerated  or provided for in this paragraph for
  seven full years continuously, have been appointed or shall be appointed
  for an eighth full year, except as provided  in  subdivisions  four  and
  five  of  this  section;  and  (b)  in  the grades of college laboratory
  technician, senior registrar, registrar, assistant registrar,  associate
  registrar,  assistant  librarian and in the elementary and high schools:
  instructor, assistant teacher, critic teacher, or  teacher,  or  in  any
  grade  or  position  which  the board in its discretion may add thereto,
  who, after serving on an annual salary in any of the grades or positions
  enumerated or provided  for  in  this  paragraph  for  five  full  years
  continuously, have been appointed or shall be appointed for a sixth full
  year,  except  as  provided  in  subdivision  four  of this section; the
  membership of such persons  on  the  permanent  instructional  staff  as
  provided for in paragraph (a) of this subdivision shall become effective
  on  the  first  day  of  September following their reappointment for the
  eighth full year, and the membership of such persons  on  the  permanent
  instructional  staff  as  provided  for  in  this paragraph shall become
  effective on the first day of September  following  their  reappointment
  for  the  sixth  full  year.  Where  the  service  of  a  member  of the
  instructional staff, in one of the titles listed or provided for herein,
  is interrupted by reason of absence on a maternity or child  care  leave
  duly  granted by the board of trustees, the period of creditable service
  immediately preceding such absence shall be  counted  in  computing  the
  full years of service required by this subdivision.
4.  Nothing  herein  contained  shall  be  construed  as conferring or
  permitting tenure, or service credit toward the achievement  of  tenure,
  in  the  grades or positions of president, director, assistant director,
  dean, assistant dean, head  of  instructional  department,  chairman  of
  instructional   department,   fellow,   laboratory  teaching  assistant,
  principal, supervisor, or first assistant. Appointment to such grade  or
  position, or removal therefrom, however, shall not deprive the person so
  appointed   or  removed  of  tenure  in  the  highest  position  on  the
  instructional staff held with tenure prior to his  appointment  to  such

  office  or  conjointly  with  such office, nor shall the appointment to,
  holding of, or removal from such grade or position deprive any person of
  service credit toward the achievement of tenure under the provisions  of
  this section.
5.  Persons appointed to the rank of professor, associate professor or
  assistant professor may under the provisions of the board  of  trustee's
  by-laws  be  placed on the permanent instructional staff by the board of
  trustees in its discretion after not less than one nor more  than  seven
  years  of  continuous  full time service on an annual salary except that
  persons of proven record who have achieved tenure at another  recognized
  institution  of  higher learning and whose appointment is to the rank of
  professor may be granted  tenure  immediately  on  appointment.  Persons
  promoted to the rank of professor shall be granted tenure after not more
  than  four  years of continuous full time service on an annual salary in
  positions on the instructional staff.
6. For the purpose of appointments and promotions in the instructional
  staff which may be made after April twentieth, nineteen  hundred  forty,
  the  board  of  trustees shall determine to what extent examinations are
  practicable to ascertain merit and fitness for  each  of  the  positions
  within  the  educational units covered and administered by it and, in so
  far as examinations are deemed  practicable,  shall  determine  to  what
  extent  it  is  practicable  that  such examinations be competitive. Any
  examination held in accordance with the provisions of  this  subdivision
  shall  be  set  and  administered  through any agency which the board of
  trustees may from time to time create or designate.
7. Neither tenure as conferred through the operation of  this  section
  nor the period requisite for the achievement of tenure shall be affected
  by  transfer  within  the educational units governed and administered by
  the board of trustees, or by promotion, or by change  of  title,  except
  that  a  person  upon  whom tenure is conferred through the operation of
  this section and who may be  transferred  to  any  position  within  the
  educational units governed and administered by the board of trustees, or
  who may be promoted, or whose title may be changed, shall have tenure in
  his  new position, provided such position is not one of those enumerated
  in subdivision four of this section. Nothing herein contained  shall  be
  construed  to  prevent  the  board of trustees from assigning any person
  having tenure to any appropriate position on  the  staff,  but  no  such
  assignment  shall  carry  with  it a reduction in rank or a reduction in
  salary other than the elimination of any additional  emolument  provided
  for   administrative   positions.  Any  person  in  a  position  on  the
  instructional staff just prior to the effective  date  of  this  article
  shall  not  be  affected  with  respect to his tenure or the time credit
  earned towards such tenure, or the period requisite for the  achievement
  of  tenure  under the law as it existed just prior to the effective date
  of this article.
8. A position held by a person upon whom tenure is  conferred  through
  the  operation  of  this section may be abolished or discontinued by the
  board of trustees for reasons which are  not  discriminatory  against  a
  particular  person  or  persons.  In  the  event  that  a  position in a
  department is to be abolished or discontinued, such  position  shall  be
  that  of  the  person  last appointed to such department, save that, for
  special educational reasons  which  are  not  discriminatory  against  a
  particular  person  or  persons,  the board of trustees may continue the
  services of a person  or  persons  whose  position  or  positions  would
  otherwise  be  abolished or discontinued, and abolish or discontinue the
  position or positions of  the  person  or  persons  next  most  recently
  appointed to such department; provided, however, that all persons of any
  grade  in  such  department  upon  whom  tenure  is not conferred by the

  operation of this section shall be dismissed before the position of  any
  other  person  in  such  department is abolished or discontinued. If the
  board of trustees abolishes or discontinues the  position  of  a  person
  upon  whom tenure is conferred through the operation of this section and
  can find no position in the educational unit in which  such  person  has
  been serving which can be efficiently and capably filled by such person,
  then  his  name  shall be placed and shall remain for three years upon a
  preferred eligible list  of  candidates  for  reappointment  to  fill  a
  vacancy that may thereafter occur in a position which can be efficiently
  and  capably  filled  by such person or to fill a newly created position
  which can be efficiently and capably filled by such person. The board of
  trustees shall, through the adoption of appropriate  by-laws,  determine
  the number of such preferred eligible lists, the extent of applicability
  of each such list, and the order of reappointment therefrom to vacancies
  in  positions under its jurisdiction or to newly created positions under
  its jurisdiction. No names shall be placed on  such  preferred  eligible
  lists  except  as  hereinbefore provided for persons upon whom tenure is
  conferred through the operation of this section. Any person  reappointed
  from a preferred eligible list shall be reappointed at a salary not less
  than  that  which  he  was  receiving when his position was abolished or
  discontinued. Any person whose name is placed on  a  preferred  eligible
  list  as hereinbefore provided shall, for the purpose of maintaining his
  status in any retirement system of which he is a member, be deemed to be
  on leave of absence without pay.
9. Persons having tenure under the provisions of this section  may  be
  removed  or  suspended from the permanent instructional staff for one or
  more of the following reasons, provided, however, that, except as  to  a
  charge of misconduct constituting a crime when committed, no proceedings
  shall  be  commenced  more  than  five years after the occurrence of the
  alleged incompetency or misconduct:
a. incompetent or inefficient service;
b. neglect of duty;
c. physical or mental incapacity;
d. conduct unbecoming a member of the staff. This provision shall  not
  be so interpreted as to constitute interference with academic freedom.
Proceedings  for  the  removal  of such a person shall be conducted in
  accordance with the by-laws of the  board  of  trustees,  and  shall  be
  initiated  by  service by the board of trustees upon the person involved
  of a notice setting forth all the charges pending against  him.  Such  a
  person  so  charged  shall  be  entitled  to  a  hearing  with  right of
  representation by any  person  or  persons  of  his  choice  before  any
  committee  which  the  board of trustees may appoint to investigate such
  charges, or, in the event that such a committee is not appointed, before
  the board of trustees. In cases in which such a committee is  appointed,
  such  a person shall further be entitled to an appeal on the record with
  right of representation by any person or persons of  his  choice  before
  the  board  of trustees prior to its final determination of the question
  of his removal. No such person shall be removed except at a  regular  or
  special  meeting of the board of trustees, by an affirmative vote of the
  majority of all the members of the board of trustees. For  the  purposes
  of any such proceeding, the board by its chairman or the chairman of any
  such  committee  shall  have  power  to  subpoena  witnesses, papers and
  records, and to administer oaths.
10. If any clause, sentence, paragraph or part of this section, or the
  application thereof to  any  person  or  circumstance,  shall,  for  any
  reason,  be adjudged by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid,
  such judgment or order  shall  not  invalidate  the  remainder  of  this
  section  and  the application thereof to other persons or circumstances,

  but shall  be  confined  in  its  operation  to  the  clause,  sentence,
  paragraph  or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which
  such judgment or order shall have been rendered and  to  the  person  or
  circumstance involved.