It is when you should have been fired, or just let go due to circumstances, but got to stay because the boss was afraid you'd pull the "protected group" card. It's right there, the guy was willing to put his reputation on the line as a sponsor just to keep him from pulling the victim card. That's how afraid the institution was of the new ID PC.
First, they explicitly stated there was no reason for him to be "fired". Since his sponsor had been deceased for a prior to the publication of the Meyer article, it is evident that the lack of sponsor was no reason to release him. What did Sternberg do? Hide the body of his sponsor in the closet?