Leftwich v. HARRIS-STOWE STATE COLLEGE, ETC.

540 F. Supp. 37, 4 Educ. L. Rep. 1106
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedMay 5, 1982
Docket81-118C(C)
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 540 F. Supp. 37 (Leftwich v. HARRIS-STOWE STATE COLLEGE, ETC.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Leftwich v. HARRIS-STOWE STATE COLLEGE, ETC., 540 F. Supp. 37, 4 Educ. L. Rep. 1106 (E.D. Mo. 1982).

Opinion

540 F.Supp. 37 (1982)

Bob H. LEFTWICH, Plaintiff,
v.
HARRIS-STOWE STATE COLLEGE, BOARD OF REGENTS, Harris-Stowe State College, William G. Gillespie, James A. DeClue, Paul Brammeier, Velma Martin, Thomas F. Rafferty, and William Diehm, Defendants.

No. 81-118C(C).

United States District Court, E. D. Missouri, E. D.

May 5, 1982.

*38 Thomas A. Mickes, St. Louis, Mo., for plaintiff.

Charles R. Oldham, St. Louis, Mo., for defendants.

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

MEREDITH, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court for a judgment on the merits after trial to the Court. After consideration of the pleadings, testimony and exhibits introduced at trial, the parties' briefs and the applicable law, the Court makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law.

Findings of Fact

1. Plaintiff, Bob H. Leftwich, is a white male residing within the Eastern District of Missouri and was, at the time the subject matter of this complaint arose, forty-seven years of age.

2. Defendant Harris-Stowe State College is an institution of higher education located in St. Louis, Missouri, and is a member of The State College System of the State of Missouri. Defendant college is an employer in an industry affecting commerce and has employed fifteen or more employees for each working day in each of twenty or more calendar weeks at all times relevant hereto.

3. Defendant Board of Regents is the governing board of Harris-Stowe State College appointed by the Governor of the State of Missouri.

4. Defendants William G. Gillespie, James A. DeClue, Paul Brammeier, Velma Martin and Thomas F. Rafferty were members of the Harris-Stowe State College Board of Regents at all times relevant to this action. The above-named defendants are being sued in their individual capacities and as members of the Harris-Stowe State College Board of Regents. Defendant William Diehm presently serves on the defendant Board of Regents. Defendant Diehm is being sued solely in his present capacity as a member of the Harris-Stowe State College Board of Regents.

5. Prior to 1978, Harris-Stowe was under the control and management of the St. Louis Board of Education. The affairs of the college were governed by an Advisory Board and the college president.

6. Many of the Harris-Stowe faculty were employees of the St. Louis Public School system who were assigned to a faculty position at the college.

7. Faculty members who had obtained tenure while working with the St. Louis School system retained that tenure when assigned to Harris-Stowe.

8. Harris-Stowe adopted a policy of upgrading the faculty by requiring the faculty to achieve certain levels of performance. This performance usually consisted of a faculty member obtaining a doctorate degree.

9. Until this level of performance was achieved, a faculty member was required to sign a Statement of Understanding which read:

It is understood that this is not a permanent appointment. The tenure is with the school system and not with Harris Teacher's College. It is understood that reassignment to another position within the school system is possible. My appointment to Harris is contingent upon a level of performance which is perceived as one accepted by the College Administration.

10. Faculty members of Harris had to achieve this level of performance regardless of their tenure with the St. Louis School Board.

11. Faculty members who failed to attain this level of performance, i.e., a doctorate degree, were dismissed from the college *39 faculty regardless of their tenure with the St. Louis School system.

12. Many faculty members, including the plaintiff, followed a career path through a tenured position with the St. Louis Public Schools to a position in Harris-Stowe.

13. Plaintiff joined the St. Louis School system as a biology teacher at Southwest High School in 1957 and acquired tenure with St. Louis Public Schools in 1960.

14. Plaintiff was assigned to the Harris-Stowe faculty in 1968 as a lecturer.

15. Plaintiff, even though holding tenure status with the St. Louis School system, was required to sign the Statement of Understanding in 1969, 1971 and 1972.

16. After 1972, when plaintiff obtained his doctorate degree in biology, he was no longer required to sign the Statement of Understanding and was promoted from the rank of lecturer to the rank of assistant professor.

17. In 1975, plaintiff was promoted to the rank of associate professor, and in 1977, he was appointed chairman of the biology department.

18. The Harris Teacher's College Policy Manual provided that:

D. Each person, teaching at an elementary or secondary school in our school system, who is selected to teach at the College, is transferred with the understanding that he is on assignment at Harris on a year-to-year bases as a Lecturer until such time as the college administration recommends his appointment to college rank. The college administration will not, however, extend such year-to-year assignments indefinitely or unreasonably. (11/76).

No record exists of either approval or disapproval by the St. Louis School Board concerning this manual. However, many of the policies established therein were actually administered at the college.

19. Moreover, the Harris Faculty Handbook, prepared in 1974, provided for academic tenure after a probationary period not to exceed seven years after the appointment to the rank of a full-time instructor or a higher rank. While defendants deny that the Handbook was ever officially approved, the record is clear that they submitted the Handbook to the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools for accreditation purposes; it was circulated to some faculty members, including plaintiff; and it was placed in the college library.

20. In 1979, the control and management of Harris-Stowe was transferred from the St. Louis Board of Education to the State College system.

21. Under legislative authority, § 174.300 R.S.Mo.1978, a six member Board of Regents was appointed by the Governor of Missouri in 1978 to take over the management and control of Harris-Stowe.

22. The Board of Regents, pursuant to its statutory power to assume the general control and management of the college, made a determination to hire an entirely new faculty and staff.

23. To fill the new faculty positions with the State College system, the Board of Regents drew initial applicants from the pool of faculty members assigned to Harris-Stowe.

24. Faculty members were invited to submit applications for employment on the new staff. Approximately fifty-one full-time faculty members applied, including plaintiff.

25. Plaintiff applied for the same position he held under the St. Louis School system, a tenured position as an associate professor in the biology department.

26. To aid in their personnel decisions, the Board of Regents hired Dr. Warren Joseph of Educational Management Consultants who was to make recommendations to the Board of Regents concerning the personnel needs of the college.

27. Dr. Joseph decided to reserve a certain number of positions on the new staff for non-tenured faculty.

28. Dr. Joseph developed a program for the evaluation of the potential faculty and staff for the new positions with the State.

*40 29. The Board of Regents approved all aspects of Dr. Joseph's program.

30. As part of the evaluation process, each faculty applicant was required to interview with one of two teams of outside evaluators.

31.

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