U.S. District Judge Debra Brown ruled that Dr. Samuel McNair’s federal claims are barred by the state’s sovereign immunity.
Mississippi Valley State University has won a wrongful termination case filed by a former tenured faculty member who was dismissed in 2012.
The university, which is in Itta Bena, hired Dr. Samuel McNair in 1977 as an associate professor of industrial technology and granted him tenure in 1982, U.S. District Judge Debra Brown said.
In November 2011, the faculty senate—of which McNair was president—passed a vote of no confidence in then-President Donna H. Oliver, based on complaints about declining enrollment, lack of faculty raises, treatment of faculty and her failure to aggressively pursue outside funds. As president, he notified Oliver of the results of that vote by letter.
The following February, he missed two classes while attending a meeting of the Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) of Mississippi in his role as president of the faculty senate. According to the decision, after his return to campus, the interim chair of his department told McNair he would need written approval from the administration for permission to attend future IHL meetings.
In March 2012, the chair denied his request to make a student internship development trip to Texas. The same month, McNair was docked three day’s pay for missing a class, and in April he attended another IHL meeting without administration approval, missing two classes.
In May 2012, the dean of the College of Education notified McNair that he would be terminated, and a hearing committee upheld that recommendation based on McNair’s disobedience of his chair and the administration.
McNair sued for breach of contract, conspiracy, bad faith, wrongful termination, and violations of due process, free speech and labor law. In part, the suit contended that the termination came in retaliation for comments critical of the president and the faculty senate’s no-confidence vote.
