Berkowitz v. President & Fellows of Harvard College

When Harvard University denied tenure to the plaintiff, Associate Professor Peter Berkowitz, he filed a grievance pursuant to the university’s1 appointment handbook. The grievance was dismissed as “clearly without merit” by the committee that performs the preliminary screening of faculty grievances. Thereafter, the plaintiff brought suit claiming that the committee exceeded its powers in dismissing the grievance. As we conclude that the conduct he grieved contravened neither the language nor the purpose of the appointment handbook, and that the committee was expressly authorized to screen out…