NJ Adjunct Lawsuit Could Create New Judicial Remedy

Lewis Seagull was fired from his position as an adjunct professor of English at Kean University in Union, New Jersey, which he had held for ten years, for complaining about how he was treated as a student in Kean’s MA in Writing Studies Program. Although he was, like all of us, an “at will” employee, who could be fired for any reason or no reason, the law in New Jersey says that Lewis could not be fired for the wrong reason. You all understand the concept of being fired for the “wrong reason”—like if he were fired because he was African American or gay.

How about if, as a student, he was the victim of bullying by the director of his graduate program? What if he complained to administrators who, as is increasingly typical in hierarchical institutions—think of the Catholic Church rallying around a priest who molests children, or the military mistreating the victim of sexual abuse at the hand of an officer—tried to blame him—the victim? What if Kean fired Lewis even though he was one of the most highly regarded adjunct professors at the university?

Obviously, his situation is more complex than a short summary will convey—the lawsuit Lewis has filed contains 31 counts ranging from violation of his rights as a student to defamation; the evidence is contained in over one hundred E-mail exchanges; the defendants range from two university vice-presidents—one the chief counsel for the university—to a secretary in the office of the Dean of the College of Humanities, and include the chair and assistant chair of the English Department and the Director of Institutional Research.

The United States Department of Health and Human Services is taking Lewis’s allegations seriously. Its investigation is continuing. If violations of his rights as a research participant can be proven, HHS can revoke Kean’s ability to conduct any research, which would effectively shut the university down.

If you think about how the progressive agenda has been advance in the last 65 years, it has not been through negotiation, the ballot box or the various legislative bodies; it has been through the courts. Civil Rights, reproductive rights, equality without regard to gender or sexual orientation—all of the great successes have come from lawsuits filed in courts of law. Regardless of what HHS does, Lewis’s lawsuit holds the potential to do what none of us have been able to do through contract negotiation: create a judicial remedy for abused adjuncts where none has previously existed.