Opinion ID: 2429649
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Termination for Adequate Cause

Text: A faculty member with tenure or a faculty member on a tenure-track appointment prior to the end of the term appointment may be terminated for adequate cause, which includes the following: ... . e. Capricious disregard of accepted standards of professional conduct. [2] The formal hearing was conducted in early January of 1987, and the committee recommended dismissal, after making the following findings: 1. Lack of compassion and insensitivity to student needs; 2. Poor judgment and inflexibility in administering classroom policies; 3. Lack of professional behavior towards peers, administrators, and staff; 4. Inability to recognize personal weaknesses that affect communication and decisions; 5. Insubordination to supervisors; 6. Continuous increasing patterns of controversy with other professional areas at the college; and 7. Unwillingness to modify behavior after being notified of problem areas and consequences. A few days later, Phillips was informed by letter of her dismissal for capricious disregard of accepted standards of professional conduct. In May of 1987, the President of Shelby State affirmed the decision of the formal hearing committee; and on January 29, 1988, the Chancellor of the Board of Regents sustained the dismissal. [3] Phillips then filed her petition for judicial review pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. § 49-8-304(a) (1990). The administrative record of the formal hearing was filed and additional evidence was introduced at the de novo hearing in the Chancery Court. The Chancellor upheld Phillips' dismissal, finding that there was clear and convincing evidence in the record to support the charge of capricious disregard of accepted standards of professional conduct, Tenn. Code Ann. § 49-8-303(a)(4) (1990), and that Phillips was afforded due process. Tenn. Code Ann. § 49-8-303(a) (1990).