Faculty members sue Wesley College as completion of DSU acquisition draws near

Wesley faculty members are suing the Dover college and trying to halt its transfer to Delaware State University, claiming that the acquisition breaches tenured faculty contracts and leaves no way for faculty members to seek damages for loss of income.   

Fourteen faculty members are named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed on Tuesday, but they are proposing the court consider it a class-action suit representing Wesley’s approximately 35 tenured faculty members. 

Wesley College and its president, Robert Clark II, are named as defendants. 

The suit asks the court to declare that the transfer to DSU is fraudulent in the sense that Wesley is giving DSU something of value without receiving anything of value in return. It also claims that the school breached contracts with tenured faculty, resulting in “significant losses of income” for the upcoming school year.

The plaintiffs have also filed motions to expedite proceedings and prevent any further transfer of assets to DSU. 

The suit is the latest in years of uncertainty for Wesley College. 

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Last year, DSU announced it would be acquiring the private liberal arts school. During the years leading up to the deal, Wesley had received $6.375 million in state funding as it searched for a partner as a way to keep its doors open. 

Per the agreement, Wesley College – and its assets – will be absorbed by DSU come July 1. The acquisition, which will cost DSU $15 million over three years, will have DSU assume all of Wesley’s buildings, liabilities, intellectual property, academic programs and more. 

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Wesley College as an independent institution would cease to exist, and the campus would become the Wesley College of Health and Behavioral Sciences under DSU. 

The plaintiffs are asking the court to place an injunction on the transfer. Once July 1 arrives, Wesley tenured faculty members will have no way of seeking monetary damages against the school, as all of Wesley’s assets will have been absorbed by DSU. 

“The plaintiffs have no adequate remedy at law” if the acquisition proceeds on schedule, the complaint states.

Every year on March 15, tenured faculty are given their contracts for the upcoming academic year. In 2020, the year DSU announced its acquisition of Wesley, those contracts were delayed until July 15, 2020. 

The Wesley faculty handbook also requires that if an academic program or teaching position is to be eliminated, faculty must be notified by March 15 of the preceding year. In the case of Wesley’s acquisition by DSU, faculty members say they should have been notified in 2020 that their Wesley jobs would no longer exist for the upcoming academic year. 

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Instead, on March 15, 2021, faculty members were told they would not have a renewed contract and hiring decisions would be left to DSU.

Before, communications about jobs had been inconsistent – Clark said on 19 different occasions that Wesley would still be governed and operated as it had been in the past, the suit alleges. 

By not notifying faculty a year in advance that their academic programs would be cut, the breach in contract resulted in significant losses of income for the upcoming school year, according to the suit. 

Eighty-nine Wesley employees were offered positions at DSU, a university spokesman said. Roughly 74 accepted positions. 

Wesley College representatives did not respond to requests for comment. 

Natalia Alamdari covers education for the News Journal. You can reach her at nalamdari@delawareonline.com.