Laid-off music profs sue Peace
Three tenured music professors are suing Peace College after being told their jobs would be eliminated in May.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Wake County, argues that Peace broke employment contracts guaranteeing the professors tenure. It further claims that the college wrongfully terminated the professors; the suit cites age discrimination in two cases and racial discrimination in the third.
Virginia L. Vance, 63, has taught at Peace 37 years, and James S. Smith, 59, has taught there 33 years; they claim age discrimination. Milton L. Laufer, who is Hispanic, has taught at Peace for 10 years; he claims racial discrimination.
In January, the professors were told by the administration that the music program would be eliminated and their jobs terminated May 31 because of financial problems, the suit said. All three are still teaching; all three have tenure.
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Tenure is considered a lifetime guarantee of employment, but many institutions have policies with exceptions for specific reasons, such as financial duress.
The case will be widely watched in North Carolina, where private colleges have struggled and public universities brace for what could be significant budget cuts.
Justin Roy, a spokesman at Peace, said officials at the college had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment on it. Peace President Debra Townsley was traveling and could not be reached, Roy said.
The three professors were unavailable for comment, but their attorney, Stewart Fisher of Durham, said that under the professors’ tenure agreement, Peace cannot terminate them unless the college is in “a financial emergency.”
The college is creating new academic programs and has a $40 million pool of investments, the suit said. Donors to the music department gave an estate gift five years ago to establish a professorship in memory of Smith’s father, who was a Presbyterian minister in New Bern. Fisher questioned whether the college is in financial trouble.
“Balderdash. That’s just not true,” Fisher said. “The music program was actually bringing money into the college. They were enrolling students; they had new students enrolled for the following year. It’s a program that Peace had had since its founding in 1857.”
Roy said the college is establishing a new program in musical theater. “That’s the new, exciting direction that we’re taking the program here,” he said. New faculty will be hired, he said, and the program starts in the fall.
The suit comes at a time of stress for the 650-student women’s college near downtown.
Big changes at Peace
Since Townsley arrived as president last year, firings and buyouts of faculty have come in waves as the college reorganizes its academic programs. Peace expanded its night school, which is open to male students and offers online programs. Townsley has said the college needs to keep up with the times and offer new programs that students want.
But all the changes have angered alumnae and some students, who fear the school’s character will be forever changed. Hundreds joined a Facebook page, where alumnae complained about the changes.
The lawsuit itself airs grievances against Townsley that have nothing to do with the music department. Townsley installed soundproofing and deadbolts on her office door, the suit said, and stays in her office rather than mixing with students and faculty. She attended a basketball game on campus, the suit said, “but instead of sitting in the bleachers with the students and the rest of the fans, she sat in the Athletic Director’s office and watched the game through a window.”
‘All were loved’
The suit also points out that the college’s Spanish major has been dropped and claims an unidentified trustee told two minority students that they “do not belong at Peace College.”
In the lawsuit, the professors seek reinstatement to their jobs, back pay, benefits and money.
“These people all were loved by their students, had been awarded the equivalent of teacher of the year at Peace, had good employment evaluations,” Fisher said. “None of them had ever gotten a dissatisfactory employment evaluation. I think that’s going to be important in this case. … I think the college’s entire defense, as I know it right now, is going to be, ‘Well, we just didn’t have the money,’ and I don’t think that’s true.”
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