They have axed their philosophy department and will fire its two tenured faculty.   Let the lawsuits begin, the college deserves it for this egregious breach of contract.  If there is fundraising to support legal remedies for the two tenured faculty in philosophy, I will be glad to both donate and to post about it here.

UPDATE:  The press release was, no doubt purposely, vague about what the Board really did on Monday.  The philosophy major was eliminated, and one of the two tenured faculty in philosophy was fired, in obvious breach of contract (Marc Joseph, the more senior member of the department, was fired; Jay Gupta, a tenured associate professor, was retained for purposes of maintaining a philosophy minor it appears; Professor Joseph probably has an age discrimination claim as well–it's classic age discrimination to fire the older, more costly employee).   Professor Joseph was one of five tenured faculty members laid off–one each from History, Ethnic Studies, Physics, and English.  Two tenured faculty (Art History, Government) took early retirement prior to the Board's vote (obviously not voluntarily).  The faculty, in fact, had produced an alternative plan to solve the fiscal crisis–it involved voluntary retirement, unpaid leaves, part-time employment, and salary deferments–but it does not appear the Board gave it any serious consideration.