Arizona State University Professor Denied Tenure Because of Pregnancy

Things at the Arizona State University in Tempe just keep getting more interesting.

When English professor Kathryn Milun first came to Tempe to teach at Arizona State University, she considered it her dream job, a great place to live, to work, and finally a great place to earn tenure, the thing all teachers secretly and not-so secretly yearn for. Job security, academic freedom, one can hardly blame them. Well, something happened to Professor Milun along the tenure track. Milun got pregnant. And as a result, she was not able to fulfill the necessary requirements to obtain tenure within the six-year time frame she was given when she first signed her contract at Arizona State.

One would think that Milun would receive an extension. Isn't that the law? Well, she was given an extension. Sort of. Milum was given one additional year to produce five peer-reviewed articles and two books (not a typo! Two books in one year!) All the while, Professor Milun was supposed to teach a full course load and be a mother to her young child. Not so surprisingly, Milun was not able to fulfill these absurd demands, and as a result, she was not only denied tenure, Arizona State was fired her.

Not one to disappear into the Arizona sunset, Milun contacted the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and filed a complaint against Arizona State University. The EEOC investigated the matter, and its ruling supports Milun's claims that she was discriminated against as a result of her getting pregnant during the course of her employment contract.

Unfortunately for Milun, the EEOC cannot give her tenure, nor can it give her her teaching job back. It cannot even penalize Arizona State.

That said, Milun is considering filing a lawsuit against Arizona State, and at this point, she is only hesitating because she has a long list of plaintive professors, who have their own complaints, ahead of her. The numbers are just being gathered, but those possibly willing to join a class-action suit against the university is reportedly more than five hundred.

Not all of the disgruntled professors at Arizona State are complaining about how tenure issues are being handled, but it is certainly a major theme. Generally, speaking, the professors maintain that Arizona State's President Michael Crow systematically interferes with the process and has corrupted it by using tenure to reward professors he favors and to punish those who criticize Crow's management or express ideas of which Crow disapproves.