Davis v. Rao

982 F. Supp. 2d 683, 2013 WL 5999643, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161214
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Virginia
DecidedNovember 12, 2013
DocketCivil Action No. 3:13-CV-239
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 982 F. Supp. 2d 683 (Davis v. Rao) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis v. Rao, 982 F. Supp. 2d 683, 2013 WL 5999643, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161214 (E.D. Va. 2013).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

JAMES R. SPENCER, District Judge.

THIS MATTER is before the Court on Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). For the reasons that follow, the Court GRANTS Defendants’ Motion.

[685]*685I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND1

In the fall of 2004, Plaintiff Bonnie Newman Davis (“Ms. Davis” or “Plaintiff’) began her full-time employment with Virginia Commonwealth University (“VCU”) as a visiting instructor in the School of Mass Communications. During that academic year, Plaintiff was invited to become a contract-renewable collateral associate professor beginning in the 2005-2006 academic year. A plan was developed whereby Plaintiff would be converted to a professional-track, tenure-eligible appointment during the 2007-2008 academic year. However, due to miscommunications, she was converted to a tenure-eligible appointment during the 2008-2009 academic year. In the 2010-2011 academic year, Plaintiff applied for tenure.

Under the VCU School of Mass Communications Promotion and Tenure Guidelines and the Promotion and Tenure Review Guidelines for the College of Humanities and Sciences (collectively “Promotion and Tenure Guidelines” or “Guidelines”), the University considers three primary criteria for tenure: teaching, scholarship, and service to the University. To be granted tenure at the rank of associate professor, the Guidelines require that a candidate be rated: (1) excellent in the area of either teaching or scholarship and at least a rating of very good in the other area; and (2) satisfactory or above in the area of service.

A candidate’s application is first reviewed by a Peer Tenure Review Committee (“Peer Review Committee”). The application is next considered by the Director or Department Chair of the School of Mass Communications. Afterwards, the application is reviewed by the College of Humanities and Sciences Promotion and Tenure Review Committee (“Promotion and Tenure Review Committee”). Next, the application is reviewed by both the Dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences and the Provost — Vice President for Academic Affairs. Finally, a denial of tenure is appealable to the University Promotion and Tenure Review Committee (“Appeals Committee”) and then to the University President.

During Plaintiffs application process she received conflicting reviews and recommendations. The Peer Review Committee unanimously rated Plaintiff as excellent in the area of scholarship and unanimously rated her as very good in the area of teaching. Regarding the area of service, one committee member rated Plaintiff as excellent and four members rated her as very good. The Peer Review Committee unanimously recommended that Plaintiff be granted tenure and promoted. The application was then forwarded to Dr. L. Terry Oggel, the Interim Director of the School of Mass Communications, for review.

Dr. Oggel rated Plaintiff as excellent in the area of scholarship and very good in the area of service. However, Dr. Oggel rated Plaintiff as only satisfactory in the area of teaching. Dr. Oggel stated that the Peer Review Committee minimized and disregarded the low evaluations by VCU students in Plaintiffs classes. Further, he argued that low numerical marks, strongly critical written student comments, a third-year committee report, and director’s annual reports indicated serious and recurring difficulties in the area of teaching. Based on this rating, Dr. Oggel recommended that Plaintiff be denied ten[686]*686ure. Plaintiffs actual annual teaching evaluations reveal that she was rated as satisfactory in two years but also rated as good or very good in four other years. A review of all the student evaluations reveals that, while some students rated Ms. Davis harshly, many others rated her as having been among the best teachers they had encountered at VCU. Dr. Oggel never took the opportunity to personally observe Plaintiffs classroom teaching nor did he include in his report that Plaintiff met 13 of 17 guidelines for teaching established by the Promotion and Tenure Guidelines.

Next, the Promotion and Tenure Review Committee reviewed Plaintiffs application, rating Plaintiff as satisfactory in the area of teaching and describing her teaching evaluations as mediocre at best. The Promotion and Tenure Review Committee’s report gave great emphasis to the negative student evaluations with only passing reference to positive student evaluations. Plaintiff also received six votes of very good and one vote of excellent in the area of scholarship. The Promotion and Tenure Review Committee unanimously voted against recommending Plaintiffs promotion to tenure. The Promotion and Tenure Review Committee’s recommendation was then forwarded for administrative review.

Interim Dean of the College of Humanities, Fred M. Hawkridge, agreed with the findings and recommendations of the Promotion and Tenure Review Committee and also recommended against granting Plaintiff tenure. Following this recommendation, Plaintiffs application was forwarded to Beverly J. Warren, Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs for VCU. On reviewing the record, Dr. Warren concluded that the Director and the Promotion and Tenure Review Committee accurately assessed Plaintiffs teaching, scholarship, and service record and that there were no procedural or substantive reasons to overturn their recommendations against awarding tenure.

On May 12, 2011, Plaintiff appealed the denial of her tenure to the Appeals Committee. On June 21, 2011, the Appeals Committee, chaired by Dr. Cynthia J. Kirkwood, advised that the Committee did not find sufficient evidence of procedural or substantive errors to grant Plaintiffs appeal. The Committee then recommended a denial of Plaintiffs appeal and refused to grant a full hearing. Plaintiff then submitted a second appeal to the President of VCU, Michael Rao. President Rao subsequently did not respond — in violation of VCU tenure policies and procedures. After being denied tenure, Plaintiff secured employment as a faculty member at North Carolina A & T State University.

Plaintiff filed her Complaint on April 17, 2013. In Count I, Plaintiff alleges that Defendant L. Terry Oggel deprived her of due process, under color of state law, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983, by arbitrarily rating Plaintiff as satisfactory in the area of teaching without having observed Ms. Davis’s teaching, and by refusing to accept the objective evaluations of the former director of the School of Mass Communications.

In Count II, Plaintiff alleges that Defendant Fred M. Hawkridge deprived her of due process, under color of state law, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983, by refusing to accept the objective evaluations of the former director of the School of Mass Communications, arbitrarily rating Plaintiff as satisfactory in the area of teaching, and rating her scholarship as very good rather than excellent.

In Count III, Plaintiff alleges that Defendant Beverly J. Warren deprived her of due process, under color of state law, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983, by arbitrarily refusing to properly consider Plaintiffs [687]

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Bluebook (online)
982 F. Supp. 2d 683, 2013 WL 5999643, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161214, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-rao-vaed-2013.