Marquette professor loses tenure over blog post, sparking faculty speech debate

Marquette University’s decision to strip political science professor John McAdams of tenure over a blog post has raised questions about university professors’ free speech rights online.

McAdams lost his tenure after blogging in November about a disagreement between a graduate-student instructor and a student debating same-sex marriage in class — a conversation that was secretly recorded by the student.

Though McAdams was not present during the conflict, he blogged that the student-instructor crossed a line by saying the student was homophobic for opposing same-sex marriage.

Marquette decided that McAdams abused his tenure by violating the policy of “including accuracy ‘at all times,’ a respect for others’ opinions, and the exercise of appropriate restraint,” according to the university’s letter to McAdams.

At a time when social media is used as a forum for both professional and personal expression by professors, including those at UNC, the line between freedom of speech and professionalism is often blurred. Daniel Kreiss, a UNC journalism professor, said he uses Twitter as a professional tool, although he is careful about what he says on it.

“From the perspective of being a professor, it comes with a certain degree of power and status of authority, and you have to wield that and use that in ways that are aware of that’s what it comes with,” Kreiss said. “I would also be very conscious of doing it in a way that would never single out students and never identify people by name who are in less positions of power than I was.”

UNC law professor William Marshall said that because UNC is not a private school like Marquette, faculty members are able to speak more freely.

There are usually two forces shaping online conduct at universities, said media law professor Victoria Ekstrand — local administrators’ regulations and various courts’ rulings.

But the current case law governing professors’ free speech at public universities is murky, she said.

“We don’t have what we might call a clear precedent in the instance of faculty speech and just how far the state institutions can go in regulating free speech online,” she said.

One UNC professor, Gene Nichol, has frequently graced headlines for his outspoken columns that often criticize North Carolina lawmakers’ decisions — and in spring 2014, University administrators asked Nichol to give them notice before publishing articles and to include a disclaimer that he doesn’t speak for the campus.

According to UNC’s tenure policy, “the faculty member should recognize that accuracy, forthrightness, and dignity befit his or her association with the University and his or her position as a person of learning. Except when officially authorized, a faculty member should not represent himself or herself as a spokesman for the University.”

Sociology professor Andrew Perrin said he has to find the balance between personal and professional tweets, blogs, or posts.

“What you want to do (as a university) is hire people you think are really smart and have really good judgment, and then give them the freedom and the space to exercise that judgment even when it’s inconvenient for that administration,” Perrin said.

The tenure policy also states that faculty members have the same rights as any other citizen, namely freedom from censorship, “though he or she should avoid abuse of these freedoms.”

Kreiss said determining where professional lines end and personal freedoms begin is a murky area at universities, government offices and private companies.

“(It’s difficult) figuring out how social media change the context of expression when there is no very clear on and off anymore and when you’re in public or when you’re not.”

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