Hedrich v. Board Of Regents

274 F.3d 1174 (7th Cir. 2001)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P was hired by Board (D) in 1990 as a tenure-track faculty member of the Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Coaching. When she joined the Department, the majority of the tenured faculty was female, but it also included some men, including Dr. Steven Albrechtsen. Years earlier, Albrechtsen had filed a sex discrimination claim against D after it failed to promote him. P and Albrechtsen became friends. In 1995, P came up for tenure. The tenured faculty in the Department met December 4, 8, and 18 of 1995 to review P's tenure file, which included materials related to her teaching (peer and student evaluations), her scholarship (research, publications, presentations at professional associations), and her service and committee work for D. P made an oral presentation to the committee on December 4, 1995. P was rated above average in teaching and service, but it gave her a below average rating for scholarly activity. P had submitted four manuscripts to national peer-reviewed journals for consideration, but none had yet been accepted for publication. P had no publications to her credit despite the fact that she had been told in two previous performance reviews that this would be a critical factor in her tenure decision. The committee voted 7 to 1 to deny P tenure. Only Albrechtsen voted in P's favor. P received notice of the faculty committees decision on January 16, 1996. On January 25, 1996, she received a letter from Provost Schellenkamp telling her that the 1996-97 academic year would be her last. P requested reconsideration by the faculty, but after two meetings the faculty reconfirmed its decision. P then appealed to the Faculty Grievance and Hearing Committee. From that point, a series of internal events occurred all of which ended in an affirmation of the decision not to grant P tenure. P began looking for alternative academic employment in the Spring of 1997. She applied for two positions that year. She applied for one position in the spring of 1998 and two that fall. Finally, she applied for two positions in 1999. All her applications were without success. Hedrich ultimately took a position as a staff nurse in Pewaukee, Wisconsin. P filed suit in Wisconsin state court. Ds removed the case to federal court. P in part alleges that Ds deprived her of her 'constitutionally protected liberty interest in her good name and reputation without due process of law.' Ds moved for summary judgment, and it was granted. P appealed.