Two years ago, a University of New Hampshire professor exposed himself to a woman and her teenage daughter in a Market Basket parking lot. As of last month, it was reported that he still has his teaching job. This is because a faculty union representative ruled that termination of employment would violate the terms of the AAUP contract at the university. The ruling is binding.
The University of New Hampshire case is just one of many profiling college professors with questionable behavior who are nonetheless protected by the terms of their faculty union contract, specifically the moral turpitude clause.
Moral turpitude clauses are common in faculty contracts. The term of “moral turpitude” is defined by the American Association of University Professors as the exceptional case in which the professor may be denied a year’s teaching or pay in whole or part. The statement applies to behavior “so utterly blameworthy as to make it inappropriate to require the offering of a year’s teaching or pay” and“that would evoke condemnation by the academic community generally. “
The crimes considered of moral turpitude are outlined as including murder, voluntary manslaughter, rape, domestic violence, and prostitution among others. But a crime that breaches a morality clause within a college setting is usually identified and dealt with by universities on a case-by-case basis.
This legal loophole has sparked outrage by politicians and university officials, who say that faculty unions are shielding professors charged or convicted of crimes, negatively impacting the academic community.
At the University of New Hampshire, officials have been trying to fire Edward Larkin, a professor of German, since he was found guilty of a misdemeanor of indecent exposure.
University president, Mark Huddleston, debated Larkin’s reinstatment on campus, saying that even the minimal risk of a repeat offense would affect the university’s public image. “Reputation is all we have,” Huddleston testified during the hearing in April.
But Larkin and his union representatives argued that termination would violate the terms of his faculty union contract, which describes just cause for dismissal as “professional incompetence, deliberate neglect of duty or moral delinquency of a grave order.”
It was a first and isolated offense for Larkin, a tenured professor with more than 25 years of service to the university and the arbitrator sided with Larkin, ruling that the crime was not serious enough to warrant firing.
“In sum, I find that while (Larkin’s) conduct on July 19, 2009, constituted moral delinquency, it was not moral delinquency of a grave order,” Ryan determined, citing contract language. “The university did not have just cause to terminate him.”
Larkin was placed on paid administrative leave. He will earn his full salary of $88,000 and is expected to return to teach for the spring semester of 2012.
Another case was publicized just last month by The Daily Beast. F. Chris Garcia, professor of political science and former president of the University of New Mexico for the 2002 – 2003 academic year, was arrested in connection with recruiting women for an online prostitution ring called “Southest Companions.” He was charged with promoting prostitution, conspiracy, and tampering with evidence. The prostitution ring was allegedly led by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s David Flory, a professor of physics.
Similiarly, Columbia University professor of political science David Epstein pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of attempted incest on May 10.
Epstein has been placed under conditional discharge for one year, but according to reports by the Columbia Spectator, is still employed by the university. He was originally charged with felony incest in December after it was discovered he was having a consensual sexual relationship with his 24-year-old daughter.
According to a report by Inside Higher Ed, all of these professors still have their jobs since each of them were in good standing when they were spotlighted in the midst of criminal controversy. The universities have yet to announce further action.
“Each of these situations involves potential moral delinquency, and they all involve genitalia in one form or another, and in our society those body parts are often associated with moral delinquency,” said Ann H. Franke to Inside Higher Ed. “In our sound bite culture, it’s easy to generate outrage. It’s easy to overlook any mitigating factors. As a society, we paint things as black and white when really there’s a lot more at stake.”
What do you collegiettes™ think? Weigh in your opinion in the comments box below!