PEORIA, Ill (WMBD) — A federal lawsuit alleges Bradley University breached contracts with its faculty, failed to abide by its own faculty handbook and racially discriminated against some professors when it made deep cuts to trim a multimillion dollar deficit.
The suit, filed June 4, in U.S. District Court in Peoria, names the university as the sole defendant and asks a judge to reinstate the professors who lost their jobs due to the cuts as well as to compensate them with back pay.
In all, 10 current and former professors are named as plaintiffs as well as the school’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors. The suit asks a judge to certify the case as a class-action to include all who were allegedly wronged by the school’s actions.
In mid-2023, former university president Stephen Standifird said the school had a $13 million budget shortfall. That led to the demise of 15 academic degree programs and 61 faculty positions. Bradley stopped offering five other programs as majors but kept some of the classes.
The school’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, which is akin to a union but without the ability to collectively bargain, opposed the cuts and argued the school didn’t follow it’s own polices regarding the terminated positions.
The suit alleges Bradley broke several promises it made to faculty through its contracts and policies including:
- Faculty would be afforded primacy in faculty status and educational decisions,
- The University would ensure employment security in the form of tenure-line faculty positions, thereby furthering shared governance and academic freedom principles
- Bradley would only eliminate academic programs based on educational considerations.
An email to the university asking for comment was not immediately returned.
In the suit, the AAUP and the professors make it clear they believe the way the school went about things was wrong.
“Through the faculty terminations, the administration eliminated programs, terminated faculty
appointments, and violated faculty rights of governance and due process while refusing to consider non-academic cuts recommended by the (Faculty Members of the Senate Executive Committee) and failing to eliminate inefficiencies and excessive spending in the senior administration’s bureaucracy,” the suit alleges.
In response to the suit, a Bradley University spokesperson shared the following: “As a matter of practice, Bradley University does not comment on pending litigation. That said, we remain committed to our mission, our students, and the values that guide our academic community.”
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