A Christian university has suspended a professor after he wrote an article criticizing the school’s descent into “Woke-ness.”
The Reverend Dr. Gregory Schulz, a philosophy professor at Concordia University Wisconsin (CUW), a university of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, “was immediately and indefinitely suspended from his classes … and banned from campus by interim college President William Cario on Feb. 18,” reported the Federalist.
The proximate cause of Schulz’s suspension was an article published four days earlier in Christian News in which he claimed that CUW was “coming under the influence of Woke-ism (that is, a potent cocktail of Progressivism, Neo-Pragmatism, and Marxism)” and called for “personal and institutional repentance.”
“While there is no systemic racism at Concordia because we are committed to Christ incarnate and His universal justification of all human beings without exception, there certainly is systemic Woke-ism,” he charged.
In particular, Schulz took issue with the board of regents’ decision to discard the list of candidates for CUW president supplied by the synod, which has ultimate authority over the school. Instead, the board announced it would begin its own search for “a president who exhibits a ‘demonstrated belief in and commitment to equity and inclusion’ and who promotes racialized ‘diversity in all its myriad forms,’” wrote Schulz.
Schulz suggested that CUW’s turn toward wokeness was driven in part by its desire for accreditation. Accrediting bodies are increasingly demanding that institutions fall in line with the woke agenda or be denied accreditation, without which they would miss out on taxpayer-subsidized student loans and grants. “The financial expediencies by which we are ‘doing Concordia’ cry out for immediate, urgent reconsideration,” he penned.
Schulz told the Federalist he felt compelled to take his concerns public after his attempts to meet with the board of regents and Cario to discuss the matter were ignored. “You don’t practice woke procedures against people who are bringing up issues of urgent discussion,” he said.
Clearly, Cario and other CUW administrators were unhappy with this turn of events, preferring to keep their turn to the woke side under wraps. (News of it has seeped out before, and the response from the faithful was less than flattering.) According to a letter from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) to Cario, Cario notified Schulz by e-mail “in the early afternoon of Friday, February 18,” that he had to attend a meeting that afternoon to discuss his article. Schulz, busy with teaching and speaking with students, barely had a chance to respond to the e-mail, saying he would be available to meet on Monday, after which Cario responded that they were to meet at 4:00 p.m. that day — an e-mail Schulz did not see until 4:30.
At that point, wrote FIRE, Cario and another leading administrator
sent Schulz a memorandum notifying him he was suspended pending an investigation into multiple allegations of misconduct, including insubordination, conduct unbecoming a Christian, disclosure of confidential information, and not following various limitations on academic freedom. The memo directed Schulz to stay off campus, to refrain from contacting any other employees, students, or individuals associated with CUW without [the administrators’] permission, and to immediately and publicly recant the article or face further sanctions including the possibility of termination.
Since Schulz was subsequently prevented from accessing his CUW e-mail account, he was unaware of his suspension until he discovered he’d been locked out of his e-mail. Even then, he had to learn about it from colleagues. His attorney later contacted the school to get a copy of the memo. (Schulz is being represented by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.)
All of this, argued FIRE, was done in contravention of both CUW policy and Schulz’s contract, which calls for him to receive “due process.” Moreover, only the board of regents, not the president, has the authority to suspend a faculty member, and then only under limited circumstances.
FIRE called on CUW “to immediately reinstate Schulz” and to follow proper procedures to address the matter at hand.
Schulz, for his part, isn’t backing down.
“Our goal is to make every effort to encourage and gain repentance from the other side,” Schulz told the Federalist. “I don’t think that I’ve done anything wrong. I’m still willing to accept correction if somebody can point something out scripturally, but I don’t think that’s going to be forthcoming.”
