NIU Legal Counsel George Shur said Thursday that CHANCE program officials are under no obligation by university policy to disclose reasons behind the firing of Martha Palmer.

“The university has a general policy of confidentiality for personnel transactions (such as hiring and firing of employees),” Shur said. “This policy is for the protection of personnel processes and individual employeess.

“There is no legal requirement that answers be given for the firing of a university employee. Disclosing information such as that is a question of administrative style rather than governmental obligation,” he said.

“Although I do not know all the details of the Martha Palmer case, I can quote NIU policy,” Shur said. He said NIU employees by rights are given open access to their personnel files, but reasons behind employment termination are not required file information.

Hiring and firing are duties and privileges that come with the job of an administrator, Shur said.

Tenured faculty and civil service employees of NIU who have finished their probationary period of employment are a different case. Shur said these employees are entitled to “expectations for continued employment, absent just cause” for firing.

He said the Freedom of Information Act also grants exemptions from disclosing personnel records in some cases.