FIRE objects after Ole Miss dismisses professor who complained about department chair
FIRE sent a letter to the University of Mississippi today calling for “a full and transparent account” of why the university decided not to renew the contract of assistant history professor Garrett Felber and asking the institution to reconsider its decision.
Felber, a public critic of Ole Miss’ record on racial equity issues, has taught at Ole Miss for four years. This year, he’s on leave, completing a fellowship at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.
The administration’s notice letter cites Felber’s reluctance to have a real-time conversation with his supervisor. But, as FIRE’s Individual Rights Defense Program Director Adam Steinbaugh notes in our letter, Felber was being called to have that conversation to discuss his exercise of his First Amendment rights:
Garrett Felber
Inside and outside the University of Mississippi’s history department, scholars are protesting the sudden termination of a respected colleague. Hundreds of supporters have already signed a letter promising not to speak at Ole Miss until he s reinstated.
Garrett Felber, an assistant professor of history in his fourth year at Ole Miss, stands accused of failing to sufficiently communicate with his department chair. The chair, Noell Howell Wilson, informed him via letter this month that she was recommending him for termination and that his last day “will” not “may” be in December 2021, suggesting the action is final. But Felber has said he was in communication with his chair throughout the fall term, even as he was on approved research leave at Harvard University s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.