## Facts

- Gary A. Wellner was a nontenured physical education instructor and wrestling coach at Metropolitan State Junior College, a state junior college.
- State law authorized nonreappointment of nontenured faculty without reasons or a hearing.
- During the 1970–71 year, conflicts arose involving Wellner’s relations with Black students and the Black Student Union.
- A dean’s memorandum placed in Wellner’s personnel file described him as “a racist” and asserted he held bias or prejudice against Black people.
- The file also contained written racism charges from student groups; these materials were seen by the faculty review committee and reached the college president.
- Despite a faculty committee recommendation to reappoint, the college president decided not to reappoint Wellner for the next academic year.
- No hearing was provided, and Wellner’s request for review was denied.
- In a § 1983 action, the district court found the racism accusations were the primary reason for nonreappointment, were unsupported, and created a stigma that impaired reputation and employment prospects.
- The district court awarded back pay, ordered appointment at another state junior college, and ordered expungement of the racism-related materials from the Board’s records.

## Issues

1. Whether nonreappointment of a nontenured faculty member, accompanied by placement and internal circulation of stigmatizing racism charges in a personnel file, infringed a Fourteenth Amendment liberty interest requiring procedural due process.
2. Whether the district court could award back pay, order appointment at another institution, and order expungement without first requiring a due-process hearing.

## Decision

- The court held that the stigmatizing racism accusations, coupled with nonreappointment, implicated a protected liberty interest under the Fourteenth Amendment.
- The court held that due process required an opportunity for a name-clearing hearing to refute the stigmatizing charges.
- The court reversed the remedial orders to the extent they effectively granted substantive relief (including forced appointment) without first requiring the constitutionally required hearing.
- The case was affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded for proceedings providing appropriate procedural safeguards and for reconsideration of remedies after the hearing.

## Legal Principles

- A nontenured public college faculty member generally lacks a property interest in continued employment absent tenure or an equivalent entitlement.
- A liberty interest is implicated when a nonrenewal decision is accompanied by stigmatizing charges that seriously damage reputation or foreclose future employment opportunities.
- When a liberty interest is implicated by stigmatizing allegations, due process requires an opportunity to refute the charges through a name-clearing hearing.
- The principal remedy for a procedural due process violation of this type is provision of the missing procedure (a hearing), not automatic reinstatement or comparable employment relief imposed without that process.

## Conclusion

A public college could decline to reappoint a nontenured instructor, but when it relied on and circulated stigmatizing accusations of racism, it had to provide a name-clearing hearing; the appellate court required that process and rejected reinstatement-like relief imposed without it.


Wellner v. Minn. State Junior Coll. Bd., 487 F.2d 153 (8th Cir. 1973)