Femi Cadmus, until recently the law librarian, defended her embattled time at the library’s helm in an interview with the News. She insisted, contrary to a Law School spokesperson, that the position entailed tenure.
Femi Cadmus, who recently left her job as the top librarian at Yale Law School, defended her performance and said she had been unexpectedly fired, in a Zoom interview with the News on Thursday morning.
Cadmus was appointed the law librarian in 2021. Library staff reported that the workplace environment under her leadership was tense, stressful and marked by high employee turnover, a News investigation published in November found. The results of an employee engagement survey prompted an external review of the law library’s workplace culture, which was conducted by Jessica Wilen, an assistant professor at the Yale Child Study Center.
Cadmus said that her termination was “both improper and unlawful,” and she claimed that the Law School and the University represented her position as a tenured professorship, including in the human resources system Workday. She also disputed the results of the survey as grounds for termination and said she felt her firing was a “retaliatory response” to a complaint she said she submitted to the Office of Institutional Equity and Accessibility in December.
“My firing was arbitrary, capricious and, quite frankly, reckless,” Cadmus said. “There are processes in place for faculty members that were not followed.”
“No one gets terminated over an employee engagement survey that projects low morale,” Cadmus added, while conceding that the results were “not good for sure.”
According to a screenshot of her Workday page that Cadmus took on Thursday and shared with the News, her title is shown as “professor of law” and her tenure status is listed as “continuing.”
Alden Ferro, a Law School spokesperson, wrote that he could not discuss personnel matters and referred to a previous statement in which he denied that Cadmus’ position as law librarian entailed tenure.
“The Law Librarian does not have tenure. The title of Professor of Law is coextensive with service as the Law Librarian. The conferral of tenure is an extensive process at Yale, requiring a faculty vote, recommendation to the provost, and approval by the Corporation. The Law Librarian position does not go through the tenure process,” Ferro wrote in the statement.
Cadmus said she was sent a formal termination last month with two-weeks notice, which she said was unprecedented for a faculty member. Her last day of employment was Jan. 29.
Cadmus added that when she dismissed three book monitors — who kept watch at library entrances to prevent book theft — over the summer, the employees were given 60-days notice.
Cadmus cited Yale’s Faculty Handbook, which details faculty ranks at Yale, including at the Law School, to support her claim that she held tenure as law librarian.
“It is not a vanity title,” she said, referring to the title of professor. “If Yale’s giving a vanity title, are they doing that because I’m a person of color? I hate to bring race into it.” Cadmus is Black.
Cadmus then mentioned a provision in American Bar Association Standard 603 — for accredited law schools — which states: “Except in extraordinary circumstances, a law library director shall hold a law faculty appointment with security of position reasonably similar to tenure.”
In an interview with the News, former law librarian Blair Kauffman said that when he held the job, he had tenure.
“I certainly understood that I had tenure, or I wouldn’t have taken the job,” Kauffman said. “I wasn’t going to leave that tenure post for a position at Yale without it,” he added, referring to the tenured position he held at the University of Wisconsin before coming to Yale.
Cadmus also said that the survey results were not as bad as some had suggested.
“I don’t know what the hierarchy of results were, but trust me, it’s Yale. I’m sure that there are other departments who had very bad results,” Cadmus said. “I was stunned.”
Cadmus said she felt the termination was a retaliatory move after she submitted a complaint to the Office of Institutional Equity and Accessibility. She said she submitted documents on Dec. 22, in which she named former Dean Heather Gerken, Deputy Dean Yair Listokin LAW ’05 — then the interim dean — and Senior Associate Dean Joe Crosby as parties.
Cadmus said she alleged in her complaint that she had been treated “unfairly and inequitably” and that her ability to make personnel decisions had been “limited.” Specifically, Cadmus said that the Law School had “stymied” some hires that she had approved.
Cadmus said that she was only shown a redacted version of Wilen’s report and did not see her recommendations.
When asked to explain the low morale and high turnover at the law library, Cadmus defended her record.
“Everyone’s talking about what went wrong. No one’s talking about what went right,” Cadmus said. “Historically, things were not good. Addressing and shifting culture is not something that you do overnight.”
Furthermore, Cadmus disputed the notion of high turnover, saying that many employees had left for promotions and the turnover rate was normal.
When asked if she was considering legal action against the Law School, Cadmus said, “I’m reserving my options.”
The Rev. William Woodruff Atwater was appointed by the Yale Corporation to be the first law librarian in 1873, according to a Law School webpage.
