Nathaniel Hiers, a former adjunct professor of math, is suing the University of North Texas, alleging that he was fired for criticizing the concept of "microaggressions." Based on excerpts of emails he entered into evidence, this seems fairly cut and dry.
adfmedia.org/News/PRDetail/…
adfmedia.org/News/PRDetail/…
To sum up: An unknown person left a stack of fliers about microaggressions in the faculty of lounge. On the chalkboard above the stack, Hiers wrote the following. 
According to the suit, his chair made a fuss, calling Hiers's remarks "stupid" and "cowardly". Within a week, the chair informed Hiers that his teaching contract would not be renewed. Earlier, he had been told that it would be.
Very suggestive! But not open and shut, right? After all, a lot of contracts never get renewed.
Well, Hiers says that he received an email from the chair explaining what happened. As described, it seems unambiguous.
Well, Hiers says that he received an email from the chair explaining what happened. As described, it seems unambiguous.
The University of North Texas is a public institution, and referring to the theory of microaggressions as "garbage" is pretty obviously protected speech. Unless there's some other shoe left to drop, I suspect this case will get settled pretty quick.
But it should never have been necessary.
SOOOOOOO STUPID. Absolute idiocy and malign incompetence. I mean, I'm no lawyer, but come on.
If you're curious, this brings to THREE the number of US faculty who have been fired, demoted, denied promotion, or forced to resign this year for protected political speech. There's a fourth case that I plan to add later in the Spring.
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u…
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u…
The other two are:
1) Asheen Phansey, fired by Babson College after a rightwing Outrage Mob complained about a joke he made on his Facebook page.
washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/01…
1) Asheen Phansey, fired by Babson College after a rightwing Outrage Mob complained about a joke he made on his Facebook page.
washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/01…
2) Joseph Mead, denied tenure by Cleveland State because of Tweets he wrote critical of his university’s IRB and alleged sexism related to a free speech panel it organized.
The third case is Bo Winegard’s, who was fired by Marietta due to leftwing outrage over his research on race and IQ. He’ll definitely get added to the dataset, but I’m holding off while tracking down relevant documents.
insidehighered.com/news/2020/03/1…
insidehighered.com/news/2020/03/1…
