Professors' Right to Open Disciplinary Hearings Disputed in Court Battle

Last year, when this case was before a state appeals court, the judges ruled that the university's decision to hold a private disciplinary hearing violated a provision of the state's Administrative Procedure Act that calls for open hearings unless a court issues a protective order closing them off. The appeals court overruled the university's decision to discipline Mr. Mills, who remains on the faculty, and called for a new, public hearing to determine whether the decision to suspend him had been warranted.

The appeals court's objections to how the university handled the case were based entirely on questions of procedure, however. It did not dispute the charges of bad behavior leveled against him, mainly because he had not challenged them himself. The court noted that Mr. Mills had been the subject of complaints almost since he received tenure in 1994; that he had twice brandished a knife in class; and that in 2000 he had been admonished by Mark Kuntz, then the chairman of the university's theater department, for making demeaning comments about women, gay students, and members of various minority groups.