Court rules bias at University of North Carolina-Wilmington against conservative prof

[Gingersnap]

Court rules bias at University of North Carolina-Wilmington against conservative professor
‘Message’ sent to universities

University must Promote a Conservative Professor

The Washington Times reports that the University of North Carolina-Wilmington was ordered by a federal court to promote Professor Mike Adams who expressed conservative views and then was retaliated against.

By Valerie Richardson-The Washington Times Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Alliance Defense Fund

A federal court Wednesday ordered the University of North Carolina-Wilmington to promote and give $50,000 in back pay to a conservative professor in what is described as a landmark anti-discrimination case.

The restitution was ordered three weeks after a jury found the university guilty of retaliating against criminology professor Mike Adams, a popular conservative columnist on Townhall.com, after denying him a promotion to full professor in 2006.

“This ruling sends a message to public universities: Academic freedom isn’t just for the Left, it’s a constitutional right for all professors — even Christian conservatives,” said David French, senior counsel at the conservative American Center for Law and Justice, which represented Mr. Adams.

The order by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina is believed to mark the first time a court has awarded a promotion to a conservative professor challenging a university for political bias.

“To our knowledge, this is the first court to rule that a university unlawfully retaliated against a conservative professor for his views, award him back pay, and order the university to promote him to the position he was wrongfully denied,” said lawyer Travis Barham of the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom, which also represented Mr. Adams.

Mr. Adams filed a lawsuit after the university’s sociology department rejected his application for a full professorship, despite his numerous teaching awards, enthusiastic reviews from students, heavy caseload of student advisees, 125 public speaking appearances, and 11 published peer-reviewed articles.

“In fact, no professor with a similar number of peer-reviewed publications had ever been denied promotion at the Department level,” said the lawsuit.

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[scott]

Only 50 years too late.

[Adam]

Well, the UNC system is not going to be happy about this. Not in the least.

[Novaheart]

Only 50 years too late.

I'd rather see a college have the individuality and fortitude to do away with tenure entirely, but since that's unlikely to happen then we work with what we have.

I read the article, and perhaps I missed the particulars. Given that there are undoubtedly other Christians on the faculty, I'll assume that the religious discrimination allegation didn't wash for that reason. I'm not clear on what point he prevailed on.

Can a professor assert his "right" to teach creationism in a science class and then sue when he get's assigned to the Xerox room?

I guess I don't get the "academic freedom" thing, but then I have little tolerance for the members of my family who are what I call Campus Lifers. Robert Oscar Lopez is in the Department of English at Cal State Northridge. I can't imagine why he was hired, other perhaps than for his surname. The man is an embarrassment to the school in a couple of ways, and yet they keep him on. I'm just using him as an example, I have seen many over the years.

There was the professor at Smith College who almost single handedly started the "all men are rapists" thing in the 1980's. I can't recall her name, but it was she who generated or promoted the false statistic that some incredible percentage of women would be sexually assaulted (which journalists and academics converted to "raped") in their lifetime. To the best of my knowledge she was never fired.

We have such gems as Jose Angel "Kill the Anglos" Gutierez who not only promotes Reconquista, but publicly supports the violent overthrow of the American state.

We have Len "Melanin Theory" Jeffries living out his days on the state university retirement.

We have Angela Davis living out her days on state university retirement.

We have all sorts of walking, talking, garbage sucking up huge tax dollars while promoting discrimination, the violent overthrow of the government, communism/slavery, etc… I don't see what is liberal or enlightened about any of that. All of these people have the right to Freedom Of Speech, as do you and I. But the state doesn't pay us for our blather.

[Billy Jingo]

Smith.

Good times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDpYBT0XyvA

[Gingersnap]

I'd rather see a college have the individuality and fortitude to do away with tenure entirely, but since that's unlikely to happen then we work with what we have.

I read the article, and perhaps I missed the particulars. Given that there are undoubtedly other Christians on the faculty, I'll assume that the religious discrimination allegation didn't wash for that reason. I'm not clear on what point he prevailed on.

Can a professor assert his "right" to teach creationism in a science class and then sue when he get's assigned to the Xerox room?

I guess I don't get the "academic freedom" thing, but then I have little tolerance for the members of my family who are what I call Campus Lifers. Robert Oscar Lopez is in the Department of English at Cal State Northridge. I can't imagine why he was hired, other perhaps than for his surname. The man is an embarrassment to the school in a couple of ways, and yet they keep him on. I'm just using him as an example, I have seen many over the years.

There was the professor at Smith College who almost single handedly started the "all men are rapists" thing in the 1980's. I can't recall her name, but it was she who generated or promoted the false statistic that some incredible percentage of women would be sexually assaulted (which journalists and academics converted to "raped") in their lifetime. To the best of my knowledge she was never fired.

Adams' "issues" almost precisely mirror your own concerns. He had no trouble moving up through the academic ranks until he began to criticize the university for its lack of intellectual diversity. He pointed out the narrow and restrictive definition of "diversity" within the academic field.

Specifically, he criticized the idea that millions were spent on improving an already large Women's Center while no similar facilities were provided for men who have their own issues around "safe space" concepts and mental/sexual health outreach.

He mocked the concept that college students required strippers and professional prostitutes to teach anal sex at school.

He condemned the idea that a society built upon rule of law (he's a Criminal Justice professor) could also specifically exempt millions of law-breakers from justice while demanding that law-abiders pay for them (illegal immigration).

He's pro-RKBA, pro-life, and pro-capitalism and he's written on these topics for the popular press.

That was what caused the problem. The university maintains that it values a robust exchange of ideas on important issues but there was no exchange of ideas on these or other topics. Racism, sexism, terrorism - only orthodox views were allowed.

Adams already had tenure at the university. He achieved that while still immersed in progressive politics. This case is about the wider implications of academic political correctness. His Christian views are really just a tiny part of this (mostly important for the workplace harassment issues since his research, academic publishing, and classroom conduct don't touch on his faith).