Tenured Professors Say School’s Cost-Cutting Policies Violate Their Contracts and Undermine Their Research

Eight faculty members at the Tufts University School of Medicine are suing it over a pair of policies they say violate the terms of their tenure contracts. The faculty members say that a revised compensation plan and guidelines for laboratory space — both of which were enacted after they received tenure — have resulted in salary cuts and loss of the facilities necessary to do their work. The policies undermine the institution of tenure, they say, without an institutional declaration of financial exigency.