Can a tenured professor be fired?

“It’s a common misconception that academic freedom is absolute,” said Gregory Scholtz, director of the Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure and Governance of the American Association of University Professors, a group that strongly defends professors’ rights to speak as citizens without being sanctioned. But a university can seek a dismissal if a professor’s speech — even outside the classroom or university setting — raises “grave doubts” about fitness for the position, he said.

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“A faculty member can be accused of unethical conduct or can be accused of incompetence,” Scholtz said. The association advises that professors should be judged by a panel of their faculty peers, not fired unilaterally by an administrator or a governing board.

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