University of Washington Settles with Professor for $600,000 Over Parody of Land Acknowledgment

<p>The University of Washington has paid a professor $600,000 after he was punished for parodying a land acknowledgment in his syllabus. Stuart Reges, a non-tenured computer science and engineering teaching professor at the university, stated in his complaint that in September 2020, university officials encouraged professors (but did not require) to include the university's land acknowledgment statement in their class syllabus. Land acknowledgments are statements commonly used by universities and public institutions to recognize Native American tribes as the original inhabitants of the land on which campuses now sit.</p><p>Reges parodied the university's land acknowledgment in his Computer Programming II class syllabus in January 2022. Instead of using the university's land acknowledgment, he wrote, "I acknowledge that by the labor theory of property the Coast Salish people can claim historical ownership of almost none of the land currently occupied by the University of Washington."</p><p>The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) stated that Reges was punished for his actions. "UW was not amused. University officials censored Reges’ parody statement from his syllabus and created a competing class, so students could choose not to take a computer science class from Reges. The university also initiated a nearly year-long investigation of Reges under an 'antiharassment policy,'" the organization said.</p><p>On Thursday, FIRE announced that Reges' legal battle had concluded with the settlement, following a Ninth Circuit ruling last December in his favor. Under the settlement, the university may take no further action against him over the parody statement.</p><p>Reges expressed gratitude to FIRE for the legal victory, stating, "I am deeply grateful to FIRE for this legal victory which will remind public universities that they are obligated to respect the First Amendment rights of their students, faculty, and staff." He added, "More importantly, I hope that my protest can help reverse a decade-long trend towards ideological conformity in academia and help to convince them that instead of 'protecting’ students from controversial ideas, they should be helping them to learn how to cope with disagreement. Only then can we heal the deep divisions that confront us today."</p><p>Gabe Walters, a FIRE attorney, commented, "Professor Reges parodied UW's land acknowledgment statement knowing doing so might cause offense, but his deeper purpose was to encourage his colleagues to see beyond their partisan perspectives and consider that others might disagree with them. Epistemic humility is necessary to test ideas, and there's no better place to put ideas to the test than our colleges and universities," Walters said.</p><p>He added that the case could be better understood by looking at it from the angle of other hot-button issues. "Consider the flip side of the coin: a state that bans professors from putting indigenous land acknowledgment statements in their syllabi also is putting its thumb improperly on the scale of public debate, and as a non-partisan organization dedicated to the freedom of speech and academic freedom, FIRE also would represent the hypothetical professor who wants to include a sincere land acknowledgment on their syllabi but is prohibited from doing so — just as we've challenged Florida's ‘Stop WOKE Act’ and Texas's campus ban on drag performances."</p><p>The University of Washington provided the following statement: "The University of Washington maintains that we acted appropriately, and this settlement is in no way an admission of any wrongdoing. Given the Ninth Circuit’s 2-1 decision overturning the federal district court’s decision in favor of the University, a settlement agreement was the most reasonable option due to the attorney fees and costs that would have resulted from the Ninth’s Circuit’s decision. Prof. Reges has retained his faculty position and continued teaching throughout this process, and his status with the UW remains unchanged."</p>