In an outrageous case of leftist intolerance, history professor Matthew Garrett was terminated from his position at Bakersfield College. He had incurred the wrath of some of his faculty colleagues and their administrative allies because he dared to express doubts about DEI. He sued and won when the school decided it had better settle.

In today’s Martin Center article, Garrett reflects on his experience and suggests changes that ought to made to prevent recurrences.

Here is one of his recommendations:

Recommendation #4: State law should also mandate that pre-disciplinary hearings be conducted by an independent, conflict-free arbiter.

Like many states, California law requires a preliminary hearing to review the charges before any government employee can be dismissed. Although this review is supposed to provide an impartial assessment, the employer selects the hearing officer, and the results are predictable. Despite my 95-minute point-by-point refutation of every allegation, the hearing officer’s report dishonestly asserted I had not addressed the “most egregious charges” and then affirmed the fallacious charges.

And here is another one, which I hope the new administration will take to heart:

Recommendation #8: The Department of Education should withhold funds from institutions that maliciously persecute employees or repeatedly violate their civil rights.

The fight against KCCD’s retaliatory actions was emotionally and fiscally exhausting, and it laid bare the lengths to which institutions will go to silence dissent. A parallel example is the case of Professor Ed Madec in nearby Fresno. Madec successfully defended himself in the administrative court and two district appeals and is now fighting off a third appeal even as his governing board has voted to dismiss him again on new charges that restart the entire process as the first continues.

Garrett’s case (and others) show that we have a serious problem with regard to academic freedom. Intolerant leftists must be reigned in.