Fox Ruling Overturned

A Waco appeals court ruled in January that Baylor had not breached its contract by firing tenured anthropology professor John Fox in 1997. The decision by Waco's 10th Court of Appeals overturns a 1999 jury verdict that had awarded Dr. Fox lost wages of $153,788, plus $32,295 interest. "We have searched the record diligently for evidence or inferences that Baylor did not scrupulously follow the procedures the parties contracted for in policy 705 [the University's policy for the dismissal of tenured professors], and we find a complete absence of such evidence," the justices wrote in their 23-page opinion.

The lawsuit stemmed from misconduct allegations made against Dr. Fox by students whom he supervised on a 1996 University-sponsored anthropological field trip to Guatemala. Baylor conducted an investigation, found the allegations to be true and offered Dr. Fox, a professor at Baylor for 20 years, the opportunity to continue his employment if he were demoted, submitted a written apology, received counseling and dismissed his defamation case against one of the students. Dr. Fox refused, and his case was referred to the Faculty Tenure Committee.

After a three-day termination hearing, the committee recommended that Dr. Fox be discharged. Dr. Fox claimed the investigation and hearing had not been conducted according to procedures contained in Baylor's personnel policies, which were part of his employment contract. After the committee finding, he added the University to his defamation suit against the student. "We are gratified that the 10th Court of Appeals found Dr. Fox's issues to be without merit, and that the evidence presented in the trial was insufficient to support a finding that Baylor breached the employment contract," said Baylor General Counsel Noley R. Bice Jr.