A trio of state senators critical of the University of Nebraska for what they say is unfair treatment of conservative students said a free speech group that asked that a lecturer be reinstated made the recommendation based on "biased and one-sided" information.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, to reinstate Courtney Lawton to her position after the graduate student and lecturer was told she would never teach at the university again.
Lawton was filmed protesting a recruiting event held by undergraduate student Kaitlyn Mullen for Turning Point USA, a conservative student group, along with a small group of graduate students and faculty Aug. 25.
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UNL removed her from the classroom for safety reasons before Lawton was informed Nov. 17 —  — that her contract would not be renewed at the end of the year.
Those three lawmakers later publicly endorsed FIRE, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group, as a key resource to review UNL's policies governing free speech and expression on campus.
But after FIRE requested Green reinstate Lawton, saying her dismissal from the university had infringed her First Amendment rights as well as academic freedom, the senators chided the organization in their own letter.
"While we do not completely agree with all of the findings nor the final recommendation offered by FIRE, we are not surprised by their conclusions given the limited amount of information they used to draw their conclusions," the senators wrote.
FIRE said in its Dec. 8 letter, written by Adam B. Steinbaugh, a senior program officer in FIRE's Individual Rights Defense Program, that it gathered "well-known and undisputed" facts from public reports, correspondence and letters penned by the national and Nebraska chapters of the American Association of University Professors.
The senators said FIRE relied upon "extremely biased and one-sided" sources and failed to contact Mullen or her attorney, or ask Erdman, Halloran or Brewer "to contribute facts to the case until after the publication of their letter."
Had FIRE sought information from Mullen or the lawmakers, the senators argued, the organization would have been provided information about how close Lawton got to Mullen while she was protesting the Turning Point USA recruiting event.
"Proximity matters," the senators wrote. "Proximity matters, because Lawton protested directly in front of Ms. Mullen's TPUSA table, effectively sharing the same space as Ms. Mullen. By demonstrating directly in front of the TPUSA table, Ms. Lawton was able to block access to the table."
Blocking the table constituted an infringement of Mullen's First Amendment rights by Lawton, the senators said.
Erdman, Halloran and Brewer also said FIRE "never considered the premade protest signs of Lawton" and Amanda Gailey, an associate professor of English who was photographed with a sign that read "Turning Point: Please put me on your watchlist."
Nor did FIRE ask who called police to the scene or about security footage captured by a camera mounted at the Nebraska Union, which the senators allege is missing eight minutes of footage during a critical period of the confrontation.
Taken together, the senators said, that suggests "this was a premeditated, preplanned and well-orchestrated attempt by the English Department to shut down the recruiting efforts of Ms. Mullen and TPUSA."
The senators also criticized FIRE for discussing how an inappropriate gesture made by Lawton toward Mullen was protected under free speech laws, but not for addressing Lawton referring to Mullen as a "Becky."
Citing "Urban Dictionary," which allows users to submit definitions of slang terms, the senators defined "Becky" as "a white girl who is self-obsessed and who performs certain sex acts."
"The use of the term 'Becky' is both racist and sexist," the senators wrote to FIRE. "So, Ms. Lawton was attacking Ms. Mullen's gender and race. Calling someone a 'Becky' is not political speech; it is racist and sexist speech!"
The lawmakers said they agreed with FIRE's criticism of the "free speech zones" referred to by an unidentified UNL employee in the video Mullen posted to social media — FIRE asked UNL to clarify that speech and expression on campus would not be limited to a specific area — as well as its notion that universities can set professionalism standards for employees in an educational setting.
But they argued that Lawton remained in an educational setting when she confronted Mullen outside the Nebraska Union.
"We maintain that whenever a professor leaves the classroom, he or she remains a professor," the senators wrote. "The role of being a professor does not change simply by walking out the classroom door; instead, he or she remains a member of the UNL faculty, especially while on campus grounds, and should conduct himself or herself accordingly."
The three senators told FIRE they agreed with NU Regent Hal Daub, who told a Lincoln radio show after Aug. 25 that the incident "was not a free speech issue — it is a conduct issue."
"It is a conduct issue precisely, because it appears to have been a premeditated attempt to deprive Ms. Mullen of her right to free speech on campus," they wrote.
Erdman, Halloran and Brewer concluded NU exists to educate students and not as "a forum for professors to proselytize or to shut down organizations they don't like," adding that when the conduct of faculty strays from that purpose, corrective action must be taken.
"As state senators, we are called to maintain a forum where people can be heard, study problems, right injustices, and when needed, to create legislative solutions to correct them," they wrote. "Therefore, we will continue to safeguard the well-being and rights of students attending our state universities."