UNT settles educator’s lawsuit for $165K; he wasn’t retained after microaggression message
In a settlement to conclude a lawsuit, the University of North Texas paid $165,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees in the case of a former adjunct instructor who alleged his First Amendment rights were violated when the institution effectively fired him after he wrote a criticism of a flier that explained microaggressions.
The settlement agreement in the case of the adjunct, Nathaniel Hiers, was filed on Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. It is a victory for free speech on public university campuses, Hiers’ attorneys at the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Scottsdale, Arizona-headquartered organization, said.
“The First Amendment guarantees Dr. Hiers — and every other American — the right to express his viewpoint without government punishment,” Michael Ross, the organization’s legal counsel, wrote in a statement.
A university spokesperson said the settlement, in which the lawsuit is dismissed, avoids continued legal quarrel.
“As a university that prepares its students for success in a global economy, it is vitally important that our faculty understand perspectives and experiences different from their own,” according to a university statement.
“Our settlement allows the university to return our focus where it belongs with the students who have chosen to invest their resources in pursuing an excellent education as part of our UNT family. We remain steadfast in our commitment to our faculty members’ rights to free expression and to our students’ rights to an inclusive, nondiscriminatory educational environment, and we are fully committed to ensuring that both can — and will — coexist at the University of North Texas.”
When the lawsuit was filed in April 2020, Hiers was employed by the Denton Independent School District as a substitute teacher. On Wednesday, a spokesperson for his attorneys said Hiers is teaching high school mathematics.
After teaching his linear algebra class on an evening in late November 2019, Hiers returned to a university lounge.
As he washed his coffee mug, Hiers, who was in his first semester at the Denton university, noticed that fliers that he saw earlier in the day were still there.
He picked up one.
Hiers looked at a chart that included “sexist/heterosexist” language. Being “forced to choose Male or Female when completing basic forms,” was among microaggression examples.
Hiers, who disagreed with many of the ideas in the flier, had read enough.
The adjunct wrote on a chalkboard, “Please don’t leave garbage lying around,” and drew an arrow pointing to the fliers. He went home.
The next day, Ralf Schmidt, the chair of the mathematics department, emailed his staff with a photograph of the chalkboard message.
“Would the person who did this please stop being a coward and see me in the chair’s office immediately. Thank you.”
Hiers replied and wrote that he was responsible.
The next week, and after a meeting between Hiers and Schmidt, the chair reversed an offer the department’s associate chair had made to employ Hiers in the spring semester, according to the lawsuit, in which the institution’s administrators were defendants. He alleged Schmidt and others mishandled the adjunct’s criticism of the flier.
The lawsuit asserted that university administrators did not apply its misconduct policy in the Hiers matter.
Someone anonymously left the stack of fliers discussing microaggressions in the mathematics department’s lounge, according to the suit.
The four-page University of New Hampshire document describes microaggressions as behaviors that “communicate negative, hostile, and derogatory messages to people rooted in their marginalized group membership (based on gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, etc.).”
When Hiers asked for a reason for Schmidt’s reversal, the chair offered several related to Hiers’ critique of microaggressions, according to the lawsuit.
“He said it was because Hiers refused to recant his beliefs, because he would not attend additional diversity training, and because ‘[his] actions and response are not compatible with the values of this department,’” according to the lawsuit.
“Hiers firmly rejects bias and prejudice against any person or group of people, including marginalized groups,” the adjunct’s attorneys wrote in the lawsuit. “He believes that the University should encourage all people, regardless of background, to learn how to communicate effectively with one another and to contribute to the vibrant array of ideas and expression on campus.
“Hiers believes that the concept of ‘microaggressions,’ while purporting to serve those ends, actually hurts diversity and tolerance. This mode of thinking teaches people to see the worst in other people, promotes a culture of victimhood, and suppresses alternative viewpoints instead of encouraging growth and dialogue,” according to the lawsuit.
