Dive Brief:
- Steven Maranville was hired away from the University of Houston in 2008 to teach at Utah Valley University, but the school ended Maranville's employment after students gave him bad reviews.
- Maranville is now appealing U.S. District Judge Dee Benson's decision to dismiss his claim.
- Robert Sykes, Maranville's attorney, maintains that his client "had a right to notice and a hearing" before being terminated.
Dive Insight:
The department chair Maranville was working with maintained that students called the professor "rude, condescending, humiliating, and belittling," leading to some of the worst feedback the department head had heard. From Maranville's account, it seems easy to see what he would be distraught that he left a job with tenure, only to be shown the door a year later. On the other hand, no school wants to see the kind of reactions he received from students on a regular basis. Instructors shouldn't be in the business of coddling students, but publicly humiliating them should also be off limits.