Professor Reinstated After George Washington E-mail Flap

College officials in Arizona have reached an agreement with a tenured professor who had been threatened with termination after he sent out an e-mail to colleagues containing George Washington’s “Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of 1789.”

On Nov. 22, 2006, the day before Thanksgiving, Walter Kehowski — a professor in mathematics in the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) — sent the e-mail containing Washington’s message to all MCCCD employees, using a district-wide service designated for "announcements.”

Within weeks, five MCCCD employees filed harassment charges against Kehowski, claiming his message was "hostile” and "derogatory.” The complaining employees also cited the fact that the e-mail contained a link to conservative commentator Pat Buchanan’s Web site, where Kehowski had found Washington’s proclamation. Buchanan had also posted to his Web site criticisms of immigration policies.

On Jan. 3, 2007, MCCCD found that Kehowski was guilty of violating policies limiting e-mail usage to messages that "support education, research, scholarly communication, administration, and other MCCCD business.”

As NewsMax.com reported, MCCCD Chancellor Rufus Glasper placed Kehowski on administrative leave on March 9 and recommended to the MCCCD governing board that he be dismissed.

Kehowski appealed that decision and contacted the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), an organization that seeks to protect civil liberties on U.S. campuses.

"It boggles the mind that a professor could find himself facing termination simply for e-mailing the Thanksgiving address of our first president,” said FIRE President Greg Lukianoff at the time.

And Pat Buchanan told NewsMax he was “astonished” that the professor could lose his job for circulating the Washington speech. “This is ‘1984,’” Buchanan said. “This is Orwellian. Academia has become an island of totalitarianism in a sea of freedom.”

FIRE wrote to Glasper on April 25 to protest the actions against Kehowski, asserting that e-mailing a proclamation from George Washington or including a link to Pat Buchanan’s Web site did not constitute punishable harassment.

FIRE reminded Glasper that the U.S. Supreme Court has held that for workplace expression to be considered "harassment,” it must be "severe or pervasive enough to create an objectively hostile or abusive work environment.”

When Glasper failed to address these concerns, FIRE issued a press release to publicize MCCCD’s actions against the professor, eliciting outrage from concerned citizens across the country.

On June 22, MCCCD and Kehowski reached a settlement that will allow him to return to teaching classes this fall. A confidentiality agreement prohibits either side from discussing details of the settlement, according to a statement from FIRE.

“This settlement is a crucial victory for freedom of expression and fundamental fairness,” Lukianoff said.

“FIRE is pleased that MCCCD’s unjust treatment of Kehowski has finally ceased and that he will now be able to resume his life and his teaching.”