The University of Washington has paid a professor $600,000 after punishing him for parodying a land acknowledgment in his syllabus.Stuart Reges, a non-tenured computer science and engineering teaching professor at the university, said 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.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."The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) said 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.WOKE STUNT GOES HORRIBLY WRONG AS MICHIGAN DEMS OPEN CONVENTION WITH BRUTAL ‘LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT’Stuart Reges filed a First Amendment lawsuit in July 2022 challenging the university’s actions, which included a months-long "harassment" investigation, FIRE said.(Twinkle Don't Blink)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.Reges said in FIRE's press release, "I am deep...