Board of Trustees for Baltimore County-Essex Community College v. Adams

Baltimore County-Essex Community College was a public community college in Maryland. In 1991, the State of Maryland reduced its funding to the college by 25 percent. This was a significant reduction in funding, which led to serious financial problems for the college. The college began the process of evaluating programs to determine which could be scaled back or terminated. To do this, a committee was formed to evaluate departments and programs based on their enrollment, program size, and other considerations in light of the budgetary crisis. The committee then recommended that seven programs be terminated, one of which was the Office of Technology program. The college’s Board of Trustees (defendants) approved the terminations in 1993. Tenured faculty within the Office of Technology (plaintiffs) were notified that they would be terminated effective July 1, 1994. The faculty filed a grievance with the college, which was ultimately denied, and the faculty were terminated after the 1993-1994 academic year. The faculty’s tenure contracts provided that tenured faculty members could be terminated for “immorality, dishonesty, misconduct in office, incompetency, insubordination, or willful neglect of duty,” but there was no provision specifically allowing termination for financial difficulties. There were no allegations that any of the faculty in question were terminated due to behavioral issues. The faculty filed a lawsuit against the Board of Trustees. The trial court ruled that there was no formal financial exigency, and therefore the faculty were wrongfully terminated. The trial could did not consider whether the grievance process afforded to the faculty was in accordance with the college’s policies and procedures. The Board of Trustees appealed.