SOUTH ROYALTON — A Washington-based faculty advocacy group this week issued a report saying Vermont Law School created “unacceptable conditions of academic governance” by revoking the tenure of 14 of its 19 tenured professors last year.
“Put inelegantly, the VLS laid off a majority of its most expensive faculty members and then outsourced the work they did to a much cheaper contingent labor force, with no intention, it seems, of looking back,” the American Association of University Professors asserted in a 17-page report.
The group said that failed to live up to “shared governance” standards.
But some professors last year said VLS President and Dean Thomas McHenry had consulted professors one-on-one as he sought to restructure the law school and stabilize finances in the wake of declining enrollment at law schools around the country.
And VLS on its website said of the AAUP report: “VLS remains deeply committed to the principles of shared faculty governance and academic freedom. The steps required to resolve our financial challenges were painful and by their very nature could not be accomplished to the satisfaction of everyone involved.”
The South Royalton-based law school is celebrating its 44th commencement on Saturday morning with a speech by U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.