Ashland University has settled a lawsuit with six of its former tenured professors who claimed the school violated their employment contracts by terminating them without cause.
According to an article published on Ashland Source, both of the parties reached an agreement to end the lawsuit in Ashland County Common Pleas Court on Friday, two days after the start of a civil trial in the case.
The plaintiff’s attorney, Leslie Murray, confirmed the settlement without divulging any further details, saying that a condition of confidentiality is part of the agreement.
The six plaintiffs, Stephanie Sikora, Rachel Wlodarsky, William Cummins, Boris Kerkez, Jeffrey Tiel and Pravin Rodrigues alleged the university of issuing a termination order in August 2015, despite each of them having tenure.
Responding to the allegations, the university maintained that the non-renewals of the contracts were part of its strategy to restructure its academic programs, which qualifies as one of the grounds to terminate tenured faculty members.
However, the plaintiffs refuted the school’s explanation, claiming that there was no formal restructuring in the specific faculty members’ programs or departments.
Earlier this year, the University of Michigan also settled a lawsuit for $300,000 with its former employee Amy J. Wang, who claimed retaliation and wrongful termination. She had alleged university officials of terminating her when she declined to lie to U.S. Customs and Immigration Services officials over the employment status of a non-US citizen.
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