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.

“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.