AUSTIN (KXAN) — On Friday, a Hays County judge ruled that a fired Texas State University (TXST) professor will be reinstated to his job while his lawsuit against the school proceeds, according to the professor’s attorney.
The attorney told KXAN that the temporary restraining order was granted “pending the due process procedures” of the university.
Dr. Thomas Alter II was a tenured associate professor of history at TXST. He spoke at a socialist group’s virtual conference, and the comments he made there went viral online.
Online reaction to the comments led to Conservative politicians applying pressure on the university’s administrators, the professor’s lawsuit claims. On Sept 10, TXST President Kelly Damphousse announced that Alter had been fired.
“Conduct that advocates for inciting violence is directly contrary to the values of Texas State University. I cannot and will not tolerate such behavior,” Damphousse wrote.
The Texas State University System’s policies state that when its employees “speak or write as a citizen,” they “should be free from [university] censorship or discipline.” The policy also states that faculty members’ “special position in the community imposes special obligations … the public may judge his or her profession and [university] by his or her utterance.”
What was news to the public was also news to Alter. At a rally outside the courthouse on Thursday, he said that the post was how he learned he was fired.
“It was heart-wrenching. I mean, it was at my son’s soccer practice,” he said. “Besides watching them play soccer, I was preparing for class next day. That’s what I do … I get to sit on the park with my lawn chair and watch them play soccer, and I was preparing for class the next day.”
Alter found a lawyer and they filed his lawsuit less than a week later.
TXST declined to comment on the pending litigation to KXAN.
Alter’s attorney said in the lawsuit that the professor’s comments were taken out of context, and that the school ignored state tenure laws and violated Alter’s free speech. Additionally, his talk at the conference was relevant to his expertise: “working-class history and social movements.”
“The reasons … provided for Dr. Alter’s termination are false and give every appearance of politically motivated discrimination,” the lawsuit states. “In truth, Dr. Alter was terminated because he espoused views that are unpopular in today’s politically charged climate, in violation of his First Amendment right to free speech.”
At the Thursday rally, Alter said he still loves the school and that it was his “dream job.”
“I love the Central Texas community. I love the diversity of it, the people in it, and this is where I got my master’s degree,” he said. “This is very much giving back to the university and the community that have given so much to me and my family … to be taken away from that at the moment is very heart-wrenching, but at the same time, they can’t take this away from me.”
Alter said the lawsuit was about more than just him.
“Once free speech is gone, then we lose freedom to press, freedom of assembly, we lose due process, freedom of religion. I mean, this is what is at stake,” he said. “This has been a unifying moment for free speech and democratic rights, not only here in San Marcos, across Texas, but across the entire country. So that’s why we’re fighting this fight.”
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