Opinion ID: 384563
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Bellone letter

Text: 18 The faculty sought to censure Willis for reasons related to the assignment dispute. Branson refused to allow the faculty to vote on the censure motion at a faculty meeting of September 13, 1977. Plaintiff Bellone, as spokesman for the English faculty, made a censure motion at the October 1977 faculty meeting which Branson ruled out of order. Defendants contend that Branson's rulings were based on his belief that faculty by-laws required personal charges to be brought before the University's judiciary committee and not before an open faculty meeting. 19 On October 13, 1977 Branson sent Bellone a registered letter, which in pertinent part read: 20 (Y)ou have moved that the faculty vote to censure your colleague and department chairman, Dr. Gladys Willis.... 21 We regard your continuing attempts to have this resolution voted on by the faculty most seriously. 22 Please treat this as a warning that any further breaches of commonly-accepted academic principles of fair play will be considered cause for appropriate discipline, including termination of your employment contract at Lincoln. 23 I am placing a copy of this letter together with your motion of September 13 in your personnel file. 24 Plaintiffs claim that Bellone was deterred from making the motion again, although no disciplinary action was taken against him. Subsequently, the faculty held a divisional meeting, in which the faculty met without President Branson in the chair. At this meeting, on November 15, 1977, the motion passed. The district court found Bellone has suffered no harm from Dr. Branson's letter warning him that he considered the continuation of attempts to censure Dr. Willis at faculty meetings to be grounds for discipline. Under the University's By-Laws, a hearing before the judiciary committee, composed of fellow faculty members, is required before a tenured faculty member such as Bellone can be terminated, and a fair hearing is required before any lesser discipline can be imposed.