Opinion ID: 2342242
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: review of tenure termination decisions

Text: The Tennessee Board of Regents' termination of a tenured faculty member for one of the adequate grounds set forth at Tenn.Code Ann. § 49-8-302 (1996 Repl.) must be supported by clear and convincing evidence in the record considered as a whole. See Tenn.Code Ann. § 49-8-303(a)(4) (1996 Repl.). A tenured faculty member may appeal his or her dismissal by obtaining a de novo review in Chancery Court. See Tenn.Code Ann. § 49-8-304(a) (1996 Repl.). The scope of the de novo review in tenure cases was unclear until clarified by this Court in Frye v. Memphis State Univ., 671 S.W.2d 467, 469 (Tenn.1984), when we stated that `[d]e novo judicial review' in this statute and context means a new hearing in the chancery court based upon the administrative record and any additional or supplemental evidence which either party wishes to adduce relevant to any issue. The Chancellor may, of course, confine new evidence to that which is truly supplemental or additional and is not required to hear all of the evidence anew if he does not find this necessary. Otherwise there would be little need for the administrative transcript. However, he may permit introduction of any and all evidence which he deems necessary to enable him to dispose of the issues presented. Either party may appeal the decision of the Chancellor directly to the Supreme Court. See Tenn.Code Ann. § 49-8-304(d). Because the Chancellor reviews the case without a jury, our scope of review is set forth in Tenn. R.App. P. 13(d), which directs that we make a de novo review of the trial court's findings of fact, accompanied by a presumption of correctness, unless the preponderance of the evidence is otherwise. See Walker v. Saturn Corp., 986 S.W.2d 204, 207 (Tenn.1998); Foster v. Bue, 749 S.W.2d 736, 741 (Tenn.1988). This case also presents questions of law, of which we make a de novo review with no presumption of correctness. See State v. Levandowski, 955 S.W.2d 603, 604 (Tenn.1997); Ridings v. Ralph M. Parsons Co., 914 S.W.2d 79, 80 (Tenn.1996).