A Hinds County judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by William Bynum Jr., the former president of Jackson State University, against the university and the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees.
Bynum, who served as JSU president from July 2017 until February 2020, filed the suit in 2020, claiming the state college board violated his contract after he resigned. He was fired a month after filing the lawsuit. Bynum was arrested in a prostitution sting but remained on staff as a professor until April 2020.
The lawsuit argued that a clause in his contract allowed him to resign or be fired as president while remaining employed as a full professor. However, the Mississippi Public Universities said Bynum’s contract did not grant him tenure at JSU.
Senior Status Judge James D. Bell noted that the IHL board’s policies allow for granting tenure after five years of service, but Bynum did not meet that requirement. Bell ruled that Bynum did not qualify for tenure and that nothing in his contract provided that right.
In his ruling, Bell stated that Bynum became an at-will employee upon resignation and that his lawsuit was based on a misunderstanding of his contract’s terms. Bynum’s attorneys, Charles Winfield and Dennis Sweet III, did not respond to requests for comment, according to reports.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
