Recent case shows need for UW changes, some say
JOSH LONG Star-Tribune correspondent | Posted: Sunday, November 12, 2006 12:00 am
LARAMIE -- The University of Wyoming is not fond of depicting its tenured faculty members as incompetent professors who flip coins for grades, disrespect their peers and use foul and sexist language in class.
Yet these behaviors are what UW officials claim gave rise to the firing of an associate professor this year in a sensational case that could influence how tenured faculty are reviewed by their peers in the future.
Officials characterize the firing of Steven J. Torok as an anomaly, yet say it highlights a need to establish a more streamlined process for dismissing tenured faculty members under egregious circumstances.
Even before the UW Board of Trustees voted Sept. 15 to fire Torok, a committee of nine faculty members had been directed to examine a regulation governing the review of tenured staff. But his dismissal -- the first time in about a decade that a tenured faculty member had been fired -- calls into question the university's current procedures for disciplining tenured professors and, ultimately, sacking individuals.
"We would like to be able to move smoothly from" a regulation controlling review of tenured faculty members to a separate regulation governing their dismissal, said Mark Sunderman, a professor of finance in the UW College of Business and chairman of the Faculty Senate, a body that establishes educational and academic policies for the university.
Most tenured faculty members actually improve their performance over time, according to university officials. Those few professors who are performing below expectations either are prone to respond to criticism with improvements or resign if their work is judged to be substantially suffering, said Myron Allen, UW's vice president for academic affairs and a professor in the Department of Mathematics.
But Torok, who was hired in late 1985 as an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and earned tenure in 1992, traveled neither road, according to UW officials.
Instead, he took his grievances to the bitter end under university regulations, enduring appeals, hearings and peer reviews after the College Tenure and Promotion Committee determined in October 2004 that the professor had been performing below expectations and needed to adopt a plan to improve, according to a brief signed by UW Senior Associate General Counsel Rodney Lang.
Going to court
UW officials haven't seen the last complaint from Torok, who was diagnosed last year with bipolar disorder and has suffered other disabilities, including Kallman's syndrome, according to documents filed by his attorney, Donald Miller.
Miller has filed a lawsuit against the university in U.S. District Court, alleging violations of law under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Wyoming Fair Employment Practices Act.
Torok previously filed claims with the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission and the Wyoming Fair Employment Practices Program, but both agencies dismissed the complaint, according to the university's brief.
Rick Miller, vice president of government, community and legal affairs with UW, said the university "intends on vigorously defending the suit," which is pending in Cheyenne.
Torok claims the disabilities he suffered during the years his teaching deteriorated were aggravated because he was prescribed the wrong medicine. With the right medication, Torok is "qualified and able to perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation," according to the lawsuit filed against the university by Donald Miller of the Cheyenne law firm of Graves, Miller & Kingston.
Torok is portrayed by the university as an arrogant and crass professor who disrespected and intimidated his peers, used profane language in class, flipped coins for grades, assigned grading to students, made flagrant sexual remarks, and even once asked female students if anyone in class had a tampon. One student claimed that Torok had talked about sex on the Internet between priests and nuns.
Torok was removed from the classroom in the fall of 2004 and told to leave the university over concerns he raised about his health. He returned to teaching in the spring of 2005 after being directed to adopt a "performance enhancement plan" under university regulations. But UW officials contend the plan was unacceptable, and Torok was taken out of the class for the fall of 2005 and spring of 2006. He also was not given any teaching assignments this fall before the UW Board of Trustees fired him.
Balancing act
Torok's case illustrates the challenges a public university faces in providing tenured faculty members due process of law while satisfying its obligations to students and other professors.
Unlike most employees in Wyoming, who are considered at will and can be fired for any reason or no reason at all, a tenured faculty member can only be fired for "cause." This places obligations on a public university under the U.S. Constitution to provide basic procedural safeguards before firing a tenured professor, such as a notice of the charges against him and an opportunity for a hearing.
The outrageous conduct the university attributes to Torok was alleged to have occurred in 2003 and 2004, yet it was not until the fall of 2006 that he was actually fired.
UW officials point out that Torok was taken out of the classroom after the students' complaints had come to light and was given an opportunity to improve his performance. They also emphasize that the medical issues complicated his case.
"One takes a different view of how a case is approached. At the end of the day, your final concern (is) with the health of the individual," said UW's Miller, who oversees the Office of the General Counsel.
It also is important that the university is as thorough and fair in its review of a tenured faculty member as possible, said Nicole Ballenger, UW's associate vice president for academic affairs and head of the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.
Still, Sunderman of the Faculty Senate said the university needs a straightforward and expeditious process for treating exceedingly bad behavior.
"I want to protect tenure, but when egregious acts occur ... I think we need a speedy process to get it dealt with, and I don't think it should take three years," he said.
As for Torok, he declares he got the raw end of the deal.
"Funny how things change so quickly. I was honored by the trustees over a decade ago for my teaching/advising," he wrote in an e-mail in September. "I got sick in 2001 and was misdiagnosed and misprescribed medicine that made me go off the deep end. Now I am being fired. Go figure."