AAUP Says U. of Nebraska Denied Due Process to Grad Student Who Heckled Activist

James Wooldridge for The Chronicle

The University of Nebraska at Lincoln did not provide due process to a graduate student who was removed from her teaching duties after giving the finger to an undergraduate and calling her names during a political protest, according to the American Association of University Professors.

Instead, the public university appears to have bowed to political pressure.

•

In The Chronicle : State of Conflict: How a tiny protest at the U. of Nebraska turned into a proxy war for the future of campus politics

On This American Life : “My Effing First Amendment”

•

The protest happened last August on a plaza outside the student union. Kaitlyn Mullen, a sophomore, was handing out political paraphernalia and signing up students for Turning Point USA, a conservative organization that wants to take the reins of power on campuses.

Courtney Lawton, a doctoral student in English, loudly objected at Mullen’s table, called the sophomore names, gave her the middle finger, and caused her to cry — but not before Mullen had taken videos of the scene that were distributed widely by conservative media.

The case stirred up concern and anger among Nebraska legislators and led to a tense back-and-forth with the public university and, eventually, a “free speech” bill in the legislature. It also got people in Nebraska, a red state, wondering about liberal bias among faculty members at their public university.

The university removed Lawton from her teaching role, citing concerns about the safety of Lawton and her students. But the campus police did not at the time consider any threats made about Lawton to be credible, according to the AAUP.

She was later told that she would not be teaching in the spring, either. Ronnie D. Green, the chancellor, said that the university had faced “tremendous political pressure” over how it responded to Lawton’s behavior, according to recordings that the graduate student made of meetings she had with university leaders. She shared those recordings with The Chronicle.

“This is purely about that — ‘We are very concerned if we put you back in the classroom, we’re going to continue to suffer damage,’” the chancellor is heard saying in one recording. “I just have to be honest with you.”

The university worried that a class taught by Lawton might become a target for political agitators, said the chancellor in a recent interview. That could have made things hard on her students, he said.

In a report, the AAUP criticized the university for failing to consult with the Faculty Senate or any other faculty body before removing Lawton from the classroom.

In a letter of censure to Lawton last September, the university cited a bylaw requiring members of the “academic community” to respect the dignity of others despite differing opinions, and not cause them to feel fearful or abused. But there was no formal complaint filed about Lawton’s conduct, the association said, and therefore no formal review process by members of the faculty.

Meanwhile, university leaders seemed overwhelmed by the deluge of news coverage and responses to the videos that Mullen had taken of Lawton’s protest. That, suspects the AAUP, is what might have caused the university to skirt due process.

“We find it impossible,” said the AAUP report, “not to see the heavy hand of political pressure in the decision taken by the administration to remove Ms. Lawton from the classroom without recourse to available institutional policies and procedures.”

Green said in a written statement responding to the report that he was “disappointed” by its conclusions. “We worked with the AAUP in their investigation and disagree with the findings,” he said. “Our core responsibility is the quality education of our students and to ensure a classroom environment that is conducive to learning. I respect the concerns raised by the AAUP, but stand by a decision that I believe was in the best interest of our university community.”

Steve Kolowich writes about ordinary people in extraordinary times, and extraordinary people in ordinary times. Follow him on Twitter @stevekolowich, or write to him at steve.kolowich@chronicle.com.

This article has been updated (5/10/2018, 7:50 a.m.) with more information about the university’s concerns that a class taught by Lawton might become a target.