Opinion ID: 766743
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Appointment of Two ad hoc Committees

Text: 83 Bickerstaff next claims that the appointment of two ad hoc committees is in violation of Vassar's written procedures and is without precedent and constituted retaliation against her for having filed an appeal from her denial of tenure in 1989. While it is true that [d]epartures from procedural regularity . . . can raise a question as to the good faith of the process where the departure may reasonably affect the decision, Stern, 131 F.3d at 313 (internal quotations and citation omitted), Bickerstaff has not shown that the creation of two ad hoc committees in her case was a procedural irregularity or, more importantly, that it was either race-related or motivated by retaliation. First, Bickerstaff misunderstands Vassar's written procedures for promotion in connection with joint appointments. The Faculty Handbook addresses multidisciplinary programs and the process for promotions for persons holding joint appointments, and unambiguously provides for the program and department making their own separate recommendations to FASC, the Dean and the President. Further, the Faculty Handbook plainly states that [w]hen the department or the program has fewer than two senior members then [sic] that of the candidate for promotion, an ad hoc committee [is] formed in each case. The Faculty Handbook continues that FASC will consider the departmental and program recommendations, and that these procedures are designed to accommodate recommendations from both [the] department and program. Thus, in establishing two ad hoc committees and receiving separate recommendations from each, Vassar complied with its posted procedures. 84 Second, Bickerstaff has not presented evidence that the appointment of two ad hoc committees is unprecedented at Vassar. In her deposition, Bickerstaff admitted that there was a recommendation from the Education Department and a recommendation from the Africana Studies Program for Patricia Kauroma. Similarly, she conceded that there were separate recommendations from the Department and the Africana Studies Program for two other faculty members -Moses Nkondo and Tess Onwueme. She also admitted that the basis for her belief that the appointment of two ad hoc committees was unprecedented was limited to herself and a few others. For example, Bickerstaff points out that only one ad hoc committee was appointed to review her application for promotion in 1989. What Bickerstaff has identified, however, is an apparent procedural irregularity in her 1989 application for promotion (which application is not presently before us), rather than an irregularity in 1994. Because there were no faculty members of rank higher than hers in 1989, the director of the Africana Studies Program should have been consulted in the appointment of a committee. Thus, consistent with our previous analysis, the Faculty Handbook required the formation of two ad hoc committees in 1989. The remaining examples that Bickerstaff cites in which Vassar appointed only one ad hoc committee are inapposite; the faculty members under consideration did not hold joint appointments. Accordingly, the use of two ad hoc committees in 1994 was in conformance with the procedures outlined in the Faculty Handbook and, therefore, does not reasonably or logically form the basis of an inference of impermissible discrimination or retaliation for having filed an appeal from her denial of tenure in 1989.