Contracts, the First Amendment and Academic Freedom at State Universities
Today, we bring you two emblematic cases of university instructors disciplined or terminated for teaching their subject matters. Both are fairly well-covered in the media, but they are likely just the tip of the iceberg, as these cases chill speech at universities in red states across the country.
First, Vimal Patel reports in The New York Times on the case of a University of Oklahoma graduate student instructor who was removed from teaching duties after giving a student a zero on an assignment. The instructor assigned a reading on “gender typicality” — being typical of one’s gender group — and popularity and asked the students to discuss some aspect of the article. The student’s response is now public, because the student chose to amplify her complaint by sharing it with Turning Point USA. The student wrote two pages about her Bible-based views of gender and wrote that “pushing the lie that there are multiple genders and everyone should be whatever they want to be is demonic.” Multiple sources identify the instructor as transgender. The student concluded her paper with her “prayer” that youth “would not believe the lies being spread from Satan that make them believe they are better off as another gender than what God made them.”
Sleeping Hermaphroditus. Roman copy of the 2nd century CE after a Hellenistic original of the 2nd century BC.
The student has stated in an interview that she devoted thirty minutes to the assignment and wrote it as she and a friend were getting ready to go see a musical on campus. In one interview, she said that she would have been fine with her grade if she had received a C-. Not good enough for OU. She received no grade on the assignment and was assured that her performance on that paper would not count against her. Meanwhile, the instructor was first removed from that course and then relieved of all teaching duties upon the university’s determination that the assignment had been graded arbitrarily. Her attorney indicates that she is exploring options, including legal options.
I gave an interview on this topic, wearing my constitutional law hat. The case would be interesting, if it really placed the student’s freedom of expression and Free Exercise rights in tension with the graduate instructor’s academic freedom. But OU caved so thoroughly, it just becomes another story of cancel culture. The student now has nothing to complain of. She was not punished for her viewpoints and she seems to be enjoying her new-found celebrity. Will she stay on track towards the medical profession, or will she now opt for influencer status?
Meanwhile, as Jessica Priest reports The Texas Tribune, Texas A&M (TAMU)confirmed its termination of a lecturer, Melissa McCoul, despite a unanimous finding by a faculty panel that the termination was not justified. Her offense, according to Alan Blinder, writing for The New York Times, was using a “gender unicorn” in a class on children’s literature to explain “the differences between gender expression and gender identity.”
A Roman fresco of Hermaphroditus from Herculaneum.
A student objected on the ground that is was illegal for Dr. McCoul to contradict “our president,” according to whom “there’s only two genders.” It’s not clear which president is at issue. TAMU’s President stepped down, but the Vice Chancellor found “good cause” for the termination. In November the regents adopted new policies for instruction at Texas universities, including TAMU. One such policy provides that courses may not “advocate race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity” without the university president’s approval of both the course and the related materials. If I were a university president, I would really resent having to use my time for such purposes.
In this case, as in the OU case, the termination came at the urging of state politicians. Dr. McCoul’s attorney seems inclined to pursue legal action.
But there is more from TAMU! As Miles Klee reports for Rolling Stone, a TAMU philosophy professor was instructed to drop materials from his course, including excerpts from Plato. If he did not do so by the end of the day, he would be reassigned to a different course. That seems pretty soft to me. Why didn’t they make him drink hemlock for corrupting the youth? The professor revised his syllabus by removing Plato and replacing it with press coverage of censorship at universities.
