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Bishop v. Texas A&M;University6/29/2000
g the jury's determination that Drs. Curley and Lesko were university employees when Bishop was stabbed, the court of appeals distinguished between the faculty advisors' academic and nonacademic roles. After noting that Drs. Curley and Lesko were paid university employees for their academic positions, the court of appeals held that no evidence supports the jury's finding that, while functioning as faculty advisors, they were in TAMU's paid service. Instead, the court of appeals implicitly concluded that the Drama Club's faculty advisors were volunteers. 996 S.W.2d at 215. We disagree.
The fact that Drs. Curley and Lesko did not receive additional remuneration for their service to the university as faculty advisors is not dispositive of whether they were employees for purposes of liability under the Tort Claims Act. The evidence in support of the judgment demonstrates that although faculty members are not required to act as advisors, TAMU considered Drs. Curley and Lesko's service to the university as faculty advisors when calculating their overall compensation. Unlike the volunteer reserve-deputy sheriff in Harris County v. Dillard, who was never in the paid service of a governmental unit and therefore was not an employee under the Tort Claims Act, Drs. Curley and Lesko remained in the paid service of the university while advising the Drama Club and received a benefit from their advisory positions. See 883 S.W.2d 166, 167 (Tex. 1994).
Additionally, although Drs. Curley and Lesko may have been functioning in a nonacademic capacity as faculty advisors, their responsibilities to the university remained intact. To gain university recognition, a student organization at TAMU must obtain a faculty advisor. The official student-organizations' policy and procedures manual specifies that as an advisor, a faculty member must know the rules pertaining to TAMU organizations, be aware of liability issues, and advise the organization to make reasonable and prudent decisions when planning activities. Thus, as faculty advisors, Drs. Curley and Lesko were responsible for enforcing TAMU policies and procedures. Because the evidence is legally sufficient to support the jury's findings that Drs. Curley and Lesko were TAMU employees at the time of Bishop's injury , TAMU can be held liable for their negligence. Accordingly, without hearing oral argument, the Court grants Bishop's petition for review, reverses the judgment of the court of appeals, and remands the case to the court of appeals for further proceedings consistent with this opinion and review of the issues it did not address. See Tex. R. App. P. 59.1.
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