Court rejects claim tenure an obligation

President Joe Crowley proclaimed a victory for the state's university system after Nevada's Supreme Court on Friday rejected a Reno campus professor's claims he was legally entitled to tenure.

Peter Stacey won a district court jury verdict saying UNR was contractually obligated to grant him tenure - which is essentially a life-contract - because he had received excellent evaluations over the years.

UNR argued tenure is discretionary, but a jury disagreed and ordered UNR to pay Stacey $400,000 in damages.

"In reviewing the plain language of Stacey's contract, we agree with UNR that Stacey had no contractual right to tenure as a matter of law," the high court panel ruled.

Justices Cliff Young, Deborah Agosti and Myron Leavitt voted to overturn the district court award and decision.

Crowley said the district court jury verdict had threatened the entire tenure system. He called the high court decision a victory not only for the Reno campus but the entire university system.

Stacey was hired as a professor of biology in 1990. According to the record, his performance ratings were "adequate" to qualify for tenure consideration, but he was never granted the permanent status. Generally, if a professor does not win tenure by his sixth year, he gets a seventh year contract that states his job will not be renewed after that. All those rules are written in administrative documents.

While the jury agreed with Stacey, the high court ruled tenure is not automatic and not mandated by the terms of his employment contract.