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>Adams, a 55-year-old tenured criminology professor, was set to retire from UNCW on Aug. 1, after reaching a settlement agreement with the university for more than $500,000.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article243963792.html
UNCW to pay $500k to controversial professor Mike Adams in deal over early retirement
UNC Wilmington is paying professor Mike Adams more than $500,000 in an agreement that resulted in his early retirement, which was announced Monday. Adams has sparked controversy at the university for more than a decade, particularly and most recently surrounding his comments on social media.
Adams, a 55-year-old tenured criminology professor, will retire from UNCW on Aug. 1, before the fall semester begins.
UNCW Chancellor Jose Sartarelli shared the details of the agreement with the university community Thursday saying he wanted to be “open and transparent” about their decision and how it played out.
“We could not will or wish away the situation,” Sartarelli said in a statement. “There was no easy solution. We had to make the difficult, but correct, decisions to resolve the matter and move the university forward.”
Last month, Adams came under fire for tweets about Gov. Roy Cooper’s stay-at-home orders because of the coronavirus.
In a May 28 tweet, Adams said universities shouldn’t be closing but that they should shut down “the non-essential majors. Like Women’s Studies.” The next day, Adams tweeted, ““This evening I ate pizza and drank beer with six guys at a six seat table top. I almost felt like a free man who was not living in the slave state of North Carolina. Massa Cooper, let my people go!”
He posted on Twitter about individuals protesting the killing of George Floyd, saying that rioters were “thugs looking for an opportunity to break the law with impunity.” Adams also called the actions of the Minneapolis police involved with Floyd’s killing “completely indefensible” on Twitter.
Four different change.org petitions popped up calling for UNCW to get rid of Adams in early June that had about 120,000 signatures.
“(Adams) has a long history of espousing racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and abusive rhetoric. There have been previous demands to remove him, however he remains,” one of the petitions states.
Adams took to twitter to confront the petitions.
“When you write the university asking them to fire me don’t forget to leave a mailing address so I can send you a box of panty liners,” Adams tweeted on June 2.
Celebrities known for television shows filmed in Wilmington also shared the calls for Adam’s firing. Alumni said they threatened to stop donating to the university.
UNCW had three choices in dealing with Adams
Sartarelli said one option was for the university to “accept the ongoing disruption to our educational mission, the hurt and anger in the UNCW community, and the damage to the institution,” by keeping Adams on faculty.
The second option was to attempt to terminate him and face a “drawn out, very costly litigation, that we might not win.” Sartarelli noted Adams’ First Amendment retaliation lawsuit against UNCW in 2014. Adams won that case, which lasted seven years and cost the university roughly $700,000, mostly for Adams’ attorneys’ fees, according to Sartarelli.
“Losing a similar lawsuit today could cost even more,” Sartarelli said.
The third option was to negotiate a settlement, which Sartarelli said was the best way to resolve the situation “quickly, with certainty, and in the most fiscally responsible way.”
The total settlement amount is $504,702.76 and accounts for lost salary and lost retirement benefits. The deal was approved by the North Carolina Attorney General and the UNC Board of Governors.
UNCW will pay Adams over five years using “discretionary trust dollars,” which Sartarelli described as saving from previous years. The money will not come from state-budgeted funds, he said.
“This resolution is less damaging to UNCW than leaving the situation unresolved,” Sartarelli said. “Dollars are precious, but our institutional integrity is priceless.”
The university also plans to share specific steps to show that it values inclusivity, cultural awareness, equality, and transparency. Sartarelli said that will include input from Black students, faculty, staff, and alumni.