By Kyla Guilfoil, Senior Writer

Manhattan College administration fired 23 faculty members, 19 of whom are tenured professors, in sweeping layoffs on Jan. 12. The layoffs display a shocking disregard for the employment protections in both Manhattan College’s faculty handbook as well as those outlined by the American Association of University Professors. 

The Manhattan College faculty handbook recognizes tenure status as a “full-time faculty member [who] has received a guarantee of continuous appointment without expiration date.” 

However, the handbook does specify that that continuous appointment can be terminated under three circumstances: changes in the financial status of the College, changes of program requiring reduction or elimination of faculty or disability of a faculty member that is so serious that he or she cannot perform his or her duties properly.

According to multiple faculty sources who received letters on Jan. 12, the college recognized the first reason, financial exigency, for their termination. 

While the college did recognize a reason for termination that aligns with the faculty handbook, the timeline in which notice was given did not adhere to all of the faculty’s supposed rights. 

Section 2.9.3.2 of the faculty handbook states that “written notice that a probationary appointment is not to be renewed shall be given to a faculty member in advance of the expiration of his or her appointment,” with those within their first year of service notified by March 1, those within their second year of service notified by Feb. 1 and those who have served longer than two years to be notified by Sept. 1 of the academic year, and receive a contract that lasts until June 15. Essentially, this gives professors an academic year’s notice to find a new position.  

“Probationary appointment” refers to those who are not tenured. However, in Section 2.9.4 of the faculty handbook, it is stated that tenured faculty shall be notified “in keeping with the determinations set forth under section 2.9.3 of this handbook.” Therefore, tenured professors are indicated to receive those same notification deadlines for termination. 

Further, the definition of tenure, both by the Manhattan College faculty handbook and the AAUP guidelines, clearly indicates that tenure is meant to provide further job security and protections, not less. 

This principle was violated as the 19 tenured professors who were terminated on Jan. 12 contracts will end on June 15, according to multiple faculty sources. 

The tenured professors were given two options to receive severance. In both instances, the individual must sign a non-disparagement agreement within 45 days which essentially bars the ex-employee from speaking negatively of the college, including via any kind of lawsuit against the institution. It also specifies that an ex-employee may only reach out to the college’s provost, Rani Roy, for a letter of reference after leaving the institution, faculty members familiar with the documents told The Quadrangle. 

According to multiple faculty sources, by signing the agreement, the individual can either continue teaching until the end of the spring term, ending their contract on June 15 and taking severance through August 2024, or the individual can leave the college effective immediately and take one week’s severance for up to 10 weeks, with those weeks equalling how many years the individual served the institution. However, for those who have taught for longer than 10 years at the institution, additional years will not be matched. 

In neither of these cases do the tenured professors receive the year’s notice or severance promised by the faculty handbook. 

On the other hand, the four untenured professors who were terminated on Jan. 12 will receive a year’s notice for their termination. According to multiple faculty sources, those professors’ contracts will last until June 15, 2025. Therefore, they will be able to teach for over a full year from their termination notice, fulfilling the guidelines of the faculty handbook. 

The office of the president declined The Quadrangle’s request to respond to specific questions on the layoffs. 

However, multiple faculty sources have told The Quadrangle that the college has indicated to tenure professors fired on Jan. 12 that they were not given notice by Sept. 1 or a full severance because the college’s administration does not believe the faculty handbook’s section 2.9.4 saying it should follow the “determinations set forth under section 2.9.3 of this HANDBOOK,” to mean that tenured professors receive the same notice underlined in section 2.9.3 of the handbook. 

By notifying faculty of their termination on Jan. 12 and not providing a full year’s notice, faculty members told The Quadrangle it will be nearly impossible for those terminated to find a new job in academia. 

According to multiple faculty sources, the window for academia position openings begins on Sept. 1 and closes by early October. Therefore, those who have been notified of termination on Jan. 12 and only eligible to receive severance–by also signing the non-disparagement agreement–up to the end of the summer, have missed the hiring window for academic jobs next year. 

This puts tenured faculty in a particularly damaging position, especially since for most of the tenured professors, their layoff was completely unexpected. 

Multiple faculty sources have confirmed that the college’s administration did tell faculty this fall that there would have to be faculty cuts due to the financial crisis the college was facing. However, the administration emphasized that these cuts would be done on a “Last In, First Out” basis, meaning that those most recently hired would be the first to be let go. 

In light of this, the college then offered voluntary separation agreements to faculty members during the fall 2023 semester. These agreements would essentially mean that faculty members could volunteer to be fired. 

According to faculty sources, the administration told departments roughly what they could expect would be cut from their departments. Therefore, it became clear to several departments that certain professors would be fired based on the “Last In, First Out” metric. For example, faculty member sources described that a department would be told they would need to lose two faculty members and it was then clear to those two employees most recently hired that they would likely be let go.

Because of this, several employees decided to take the voluntary separation agreements, on the basis that they believed they would likely be fired anyways in the coming semester, faculty sources told The Quadrangle. 

On the other hand, more senior employees, including many tenured professors, believed they were safe in their jobs and would not be on the chopping block during the current academic year. Faculty sources told The Quadrangle that this made the tenured terminations, given mid-year, even more shocking. 

Further, multiple faculty members familiar with the termination letters have told The Quadrangle that the metric used for determining who would be fired was not shared. Clearly, the layoffs this January were not determined based on the “Last In, First Out” basis, but a new metric was not announced in replacement. 

Multiple faculty members who received termination notices on Jan. 12 said that they had not been told why they were chosen to lose their jobs, and even after faculty representatives asked the college, there was still not a clear answer. 

As of Jan. 12, faculty sources have told The Quadrangle that over 25% of the college’s faculty has been fired since June 15, 2023. 

The 23 layoffs this month add both to those who took a voluntary separation agreement in the fall and to the 16 untenured professors who received termination notice on Sept. 1, 2023. According to faculty sources, additional faculty were also notified of termination in June 2023, bringing the number of terminations to 62 out of 225 faculty members at the college since last June.