Kansas University officials failed to follow proper procedures in denying a professor tenure last spring, a university committee ruled this week.

The ruling means Margaret Marco, assistant professor of music and dance, will be allowed to submit her tenure application again for consideration.

“It’s a mix of being a little apprehensive but at the same point hopeful,” Marco said Friday. “It’s been a difficult year.”

Marco, who teaches oboe, was denied tenure in March, apparently because the university’s promotions and tenure committee felt she hadn’t recruited enough students to the oboe program. Marco disputed the student-load numbers presented by the Provost’s Office, saying she taught more students each semester than records indicated.

She appealed her tenure decision, saying the university violated two procedures. The first was that she wasn’t given clear standards by which she would be evaluated for tenure. A five-member faculty appeal committee disagreed with that allegation.

But the committee agreed on the second point, saying Marco should have been notified that the School of Fine Arts’ promotion and tenure committee was seeking additional information from her departmental review committee.

The ruling, written by Bill Keel, professor of Germanic languages and literatures, said the university doesn’t have specific rules requiring faculty to be notified when such a “check-back” occurs. But, he said, it is standard practice for faculty members to be notified and given the opportunity to add more information to their tenure application file.

Marco, whose appointment currently stands to end in June, said she didn’t know how long the review process would take. She said she has applied to other jobs but that KU hasn’t been interviewing for the oboe position pending the resolution of the tenure case.

“I’m able to go through the process again, and my concern is that it’s fair,” she said. “I hope they’ll realize the process was unfair in the first place, and that had I been given the opportunity to add information I’d be enjoying the associate professor title now and spared the stress, anguish and financial expense I’ve had to endure.”

Todd Cohen, a university spokesman, said the administration accepted the ruling.

“This is the procedure,” he said. “They made their decision. We’ll go back and restart the process.”