1/4/2021
Irreplaceable: Illinois Supreme Court Says Community Colleges Can t Lay Off Faculty and Replace with Adjuncts Breaking News
In 2016, 27 tenured faculty members at John A. Logan Community College in Illinois were laid off. The following year, seven of those faculty members sued the Board of Trustees, arguing that the college replaced them with adjuncts in violation of the Illinois Public Community College Act. Last month, the Illinois Supreme Court sided with the faculty.
The decision is a rare win for tenured faculty, who have seen their power and job protections erode in recent years. Numerous institutions have laid off faculty members this year, and at some, administrators have all but stated the professors will be replaced with adjuncts, who are cheaper to employ.
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On December 17, 2020, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that a community college violated the Illinois Public Community College Act when it replaced laid off tenured faculty members with adjunct faculty. The case addressed Section 3B-5 of the Act, which addresses “bumping rights” and prohibits community colleges from employing “other employees with less seniority” for services a laid off tenured faculty member is competent to render.
Barrell v. Board of Trustees of John A. Logan Community College (insert link) involved the layoff of 27 full-time, tenured faculty members at an Illinois community college. The college subsequently hired adjunct instructors to teach the courses previously taught by the tenured faculty members, who filed a lawsuit claiming that this action violated Section 3B-5 of the Act. A trial court initially dismissed the complaint, but the Illinois Appellate Court reversed, finding that Section