Professor Kevin Renken’s decades-long disputes with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee included at least three lawsuits, two disciplinary investigations, one suspension and a whopper of an accusation that he produced little to no research.
It ended with a six-page settlement in August 2024.
UWM paid Renken, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, to leave his job in exchange for his promise he would not sue. His career is an interesting case study, raising questions about how well universities can monitor professors’ research output and manage the interdepartmental squabbles that can sprout up on campuses.
Here is a timeline of Renken’s career at UWM and the unusual circumstances leading to his departure:
1987: UWM hires Renken
UWM hired Renken as a tenure-track professor in the mechanical engineering department.
1993: Renken earns tenure
Based on Renken’s record of teaching and research, the UW Board of Regents promoted him from assistant professor to associate professor. The position came with tenured status, which offered some additional job security. Tenured professors can only be fired for a few reasons spelled out in state law, such as criminal misconduct or a campuswide financial emergency.
The privilege is for a reason. It protects academic freedom, the principle that professors creating knowledge and expressing ideas should be free to do so without the threat of intimidation or retaliation.
2004: Renken sues UWM over grant
Renken alleged UWM mishandled a federal grant he and some of his colleagues received from the National Science Foundation.
He filed several internal university complaints about it, then sued in federal court, alleging his First Amendment rights were violated when, he said, UWM reduced his pay and terminated his grant in retaliation for blowing the whistle.
2008: Appeals court sides with UWM, Renken loses lab space
A federal appeals court found Renken was acting officially, not as a private citizen, when he lodged complaints about UWM’s handling of his grant, and was therefore not covered by the First Amendment’s speech protections due to his status as a government employee.
Renken lost some of his lab space, which he said was retaliation and UWM said was due to his research inactivity.
A letter from some of Renken’s colleagues protested the decision, calling him a “valuable asset,” according to court records.
2013: UWM disciplines Renken
Renken was disciplined for verbally abusive behavior toward an employee, according to court records. He was temporarily banned from attending department meetings, and a letter of reprimand was added to his file.
2015: Republican lawmakers push post-tenure review policies
Republican state lawmakers pushed UW campuses to adopt more stringent post-tenure review policies. They believed earning tenure gave faculty a “job for life” without meaningful evaluations and accountability.
Academia traditionally gives primary responsibility for evaluating faculty to other faculty in the same discipline or field. Top university officials had the final say over post-tenure performance evaluations but tended to defer to peers of the faculty member being reviewed.
2016: Post-tenure review policies approved
The UW Board of Regents approved post-tenure review policies. A majority of board members were appointed by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
The policy requires UW campuses to review tenured professors at least once every five years to ensure they are meeting expectations. It includes an independent review by the dean, provost or chancellor.
January and February 2018: Renken’s department claims he isn’t pulling his weight
Renken’s department denied him a pay raise during his yearly review, calling him “a solid non-performer,” court records show. He also failed his first post-tenure review, with a review committee determining he failed to meet expectations.
Renken was given several semesters to improve.
March and April 2018: Renken files complaint against some department colleagues
Renken filed a complaint with UWM’s Office of Equity and Diversity, alleging his colleagues’ negative evaluations were the result of discrimination because of his white, American-born status, according to court records.
Renken told a colleague about the negative reviews and jokingly asked where he could buy a gun. The colleague mentioned the gun comment to Deyang Qu, the department chair, who reported the gun comment to UWM Police.
May 2018: UWM Police investigate gun comment
UWM Police interviewed Renken and others about the gun comment.
Renken told an officer he was “dealing with a bunch of foreign a*******” and was “in the minority in his department,” according to the police report. He denied making the gun comment. Renken’s colleague told police he knew Renken had made the comment in jest.
UWM Police determined the comment, while inappropriate and disruptive, was not a crime, and closed the case.
Fall 2018: More in-fighting in mechanical engineering department
Renken’s department colleagues got their hands on the police report. Some felt his comments to police were proof of his alleged xenophobia, emails showed.
One of Renken’s colleagues, Michael Nosonovsky, penned a blog post — “Does UWM endorse hatred towards immigrant scientists?” The post didn’t name Renken but described a UWM professor who was hired at 25 due to his white, male American privilege, who had asked a colleague about buying a gun and who had worked there without making significant contribution to scientific literature. The post has since been deleted from the university’s website, according to court records.
Renken also claimed Qu and Nosonovsky were behind a campaign to tank Renken’s nomination to the college’s awards committee that fall, according to court records. He alleged they circulated “Vote Against Creepy Kevin” posters on campus and claimed they were “completely obsessed” with getting him fired.
Qu declined to comment to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Nosonovsky denied circulating the poster.
February 2019: Department colleagues file complaint against Renken
Qu and some others in the department filed a university complaint against Renken, alleging he engaged in bullying behavior that sparked safety concerns and regularly disrupted the work of the department. The complaint also claimed Renken wasn’t producing research.
“This paralyzes the work of the department,” the complaint said. “Department chair Dr. Qu indicates that he is afraid for his life.”
A faculty committee investigating the complaint substantiated most claims about Renken’s behavior but suggested addressing the allegation of low research output through a different process, such as post-tenure review.
Renken called his colleagues’ complaint nonsense and an attempt to undermine his own claim against them.
March 2019: Colleague inquires about Renken’s hire
More than 30 years after UWM hired Renken, one of Renken’s colleagues emailed university leaders about his hire. Nosonovsky found the department’s meeting minutes from 1987 showing the hiring committee was one person short of a quorum.
He asked UWM leaders to add “unhiring” to a meeting agenda, according to court records.
Fall 2019 through spring 2020: Renken is on unpaid suspension and sues over it
The colleagues’ complaint against Renken was investigated and eventually led UWM to suspend Renken for the 2019-20 school year.
The suspension prompted Renken to sue his employer a second time, arguing UWM violated policy by wrongfully depriving him of his right to a hearing before suspending him. He also said his suspension ruined his research agenda.
A judge later ruled Renken was entitled to a disciplinary hearing before UWM suspended him. UWM paid him nearly $90,000 in backpay.
2021: Renken sues colleagues in court
Renken sued Qu, Nosonovsky and some other department colleagues, alleging they defamed him and engaged in a conspiracy to destroy his reputation. A judge dismissed the case.
2023: UWM investigates Renken for lack of research
A UWM employee determined there was insufficient evidence showing Renken faced discrimination from his colleagues, closing out his 2018 complaint.
A faculty committee investigating Renken for potential dismissal concluded Renken had failed his initial post-tenure review and failed to improve during the remediation process.
The committee’s report said Renken conducted minimal research for multiple decades, with his academic publications effectively ending in 2001. Renken attributed the lack of work to his conflicts over funding and lab space in the early 2000s, according to the report.
“Rather than pivoting to focus on other projects, Prof. Renken continued to focus on what he regarded as personal attacks, and this appears to have prevented him from being a productive scholar,” the report said.
Renken disputed UWM’s claims about his lack of research, pointing to a 2021 grant he helped write and other work UWM said was not considered research, such as his lawsuits against the university. He said he never approved his department’s remediation plan and called the faculty committee investigating him “bogus.”
February 2024: UWM moves to fire Renken
UWM Provost Andrew Daire concluded there was just cause to fire Renken. He acknowledged Renken’s “commendable” teaching record but said teaching is only half the job of a tenured professor at a research university.
August 2024: Renken and UWM part ways
UWM reached a settlement with Renken, agreeing to pay him $46,800 and his attorney $40,000. In exchange, Renken agreed to resign and not sue over the matter. He also did not receive emeritus status, an honorary designation granted to retired faculty.
Kelly Meyerhofer has covered higher education in Wisconsin since 2018. Contact her at kmeyerhofer@gannett.com or 414-223-5168. Follow her on X (Twitter) at @KellyMeyerhofer.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What to know about the long, winding path of Professor Kevin Renken’s career at UWM
Reporting by Kelly Meyerhofer, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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