Plaintiff, a tenured professor, was fired after a university received a series of student complaints. The university issued charges against plaintiff and conducted dismissal proceedings pursuant to its faculty handbook, a document which, among other things, detailed the process for removing a tenured professor. The university's board of trustees found by clear and convincing evidence that plaintiff had engaged in willful misconduct and terminated his employment.
Plaintiff filed suit, alleging the board failed to establish adequate cause for termination by clear and convincing evidence. The trial court granted the board's motion for summary judgment, finding the board was not arbitrary, capricious, or unreasonable in its decision to terminate plaintiff in accordance with the agreed-upon guidelines established in the faculty handbook.
After a de novo review of the trial court's summary judgment order, the court affirmed, holding that the administrative agency standard of review used to analyze the internal decision-making of public universities applied to a private university's termination of a tenured professor.