“From the start, the University said that the charges raised by Joel Westheimer were false, and they could not be sustained in any fair proceeding.
“Thus, we are very pleased to announce that we have come to an agreement with Mr. Westheimer that he will withdraw his claim filed with the National Labor Relations Board. In exchange, the University will permit him to withdraw his application for tenure retroactively, and, accordingly, the University will expunge the official record of his denial of tenure, including the unanimous vote of the school-wide tenure review committee to deny him tenure, which guided the ultimate decision. The University is essentially replicating the arrangement he was counseled to accept in March 2001 to avoid a negative tenure decision: that he withdraw his tenure application after the unanimously negative vote of the school-wide tenure committee, and take the terminal year to which he was entitled while looking for a post elsewhere. Additionally, the University will pay him the modest sum of $15,000, which brings his salary to the level he would have received had he completed his terminal year here.
“Any reasonable person will conclude that this outcome validates our statements from the outset that Mr. Westheimer’s charges against the integrity of the tenure process and those who participated in it were baseless. Given the centrality of faculty to the enterprise, tenure decisions are among the most important any university can make; those who participate approach these decisions with the utmost seriousness and rigor. They evaluate candidates strictly on their scholarship, teaching, service, and contribution to academic development.
“As we have stated from the start, no harm or malice was ever intended towards Mr. Westheimer at any point in the tenure process, and his advocacy of unionization had no effect on or relation to the tenure process.”