Despite all of this, the school said Adams has done nothing wrong by its own standards.
“Dr. Adams’s online column and social media presence represent his personal expressions and opinions on a variety of topics,” UNCW said in a statement. “These expressions and opinions are neither within the requested scope of Dr. Adams’s duties with the university, nor do they represent the views of this institution. However, they are expressions protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.”
The school also said that speech didn’t cross the line when it came to Merghani.
“At this point, the university has not found evidence that Dr. Adams has improperly released any private or confidential information related to the student, or violated the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). There is no evidence of unlawful discrimination by Dr. Adams toward this student in UNCW’s working, living, or learning environment, per the university’s harassment prevention policy. Finally, Dr. Adams’s conduct and written material do not contain any evidence of a true threat toward this or any other student.”
If the school were to fire or discipline Adams, he might sue—again.
In 2007, Adams sued UNCW for religious and speech-based discrimination after he was not promoted to full professor in 2006. A federal district court ruled in favor of UNCW in 2010, but then a federal appeals court overturned that ruling in 2011. In 2014 a jury upheld Adams’s appeal of the initial ruling and awarded him $50,000 in back pay and ordered the school to pay more than $600,000 in legal fees. In the settlement the school also agreed to promote Adams to full professor, and administrators “agreed to adopt procedures protecting Adams from renewed retaliation.”
Since winning the lawsuit, Adams has ramped up his efforts, churning out more posts for Town Hall and the Daily Wire. He
calls himself a “vocal critic of the diversity movement in academia” and brags about receiving ‘countless hate mails [sic].”