Adams State University, in Alamosa, Colo., will lift a campus ban on Danny Ledonne, a former mass-communications professor, and pay $100,000 to settle a lawsuit brought on his behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union, The Denver Post reported on Monday.
After the university did not renew his contract, in 2015, Mr. Ledonne created a website on which he accused Adams State of violating Colorado law by making untimely payments to adjunct faculty members. Subsequently, Beverlee McClure, president of Adams State, indefinitely prohibited Mr. Ledonne from stepping onto university property, saying his presence on the campus “would result in his immediate arrest for trespass,” the Post reported.
The ACLU then sued the university, asserting its administration had violated Mr. Ledonne’s rights to free speech and due process.
“By summarily banning Danny from a public campus and falsely labeling him a security threat, without providing any opportunity to rebut the false allegations, the university deprived him of due process and unjustifiably retaliated against him for his constitutionally protected criticism of university practices,” Mark Silverstein, legal director for the ACLU in Colorado, said in a statement quoted by the Post.
The newspaper said representatives of the university were not immediately available for comment.