Princeton Fires Tenured Professor in Campus Controversy

A Princeton classics professor was fired, “efficient instantly,” on Monday after the college’s administration discovered that he had not been absolutely sincere and cooperative with an investigation into his sexual relationship with an undergraduate pupil about 15 years in the past.

The dismissal of the professor, Joshua Katz, was a uncommon case of a tenured professor being dismissed, and got here after a fierce debate on campus and in wider political spheres over whether or not he was focused for his politics. In 2020, he wrote an article in Quillette, a web based journal, that criticized anti-racist proposals by Princeton school, college students and employees.

The college’s assertion on the firing didn’t even allude to the free speech concern. The explanations the college gave for dismissal have been primarily based on a “detailed written criticism from an alumna who had a consensual relationship with Dr. Katz whereas she was an undergraduate underneath his tutorial supervision.” That relationship was in 2006 and 2007, however the alumna didn’t file her criticism till 2021.

Dr. Katz, 52, mentioned Princeton had handled him with “gross unfairness” after he had given his “total profession” to the college.

“I’m each indignant and heartbroken, which is a dreadful mixture,” he mentioned in a textual content message on Monday evening.

His lawyer, Samantha Harris, mentioned the college’s assertion that Dr. Katz had tried to impede the investigation into his sexual relationship with the scholar was a “mischaracterization.”

And he or she mentioned, “The college’s resolution could have a robust chilling impact on free speech, as a result of anybody who may want to categorical a controversial opinion is aware of that they need to first ask themselves if their private life can stand as much as the sort of relentless scrutiny that Dr. Katz’s life was subjected to starting simply days after the publication of his Quillette article.”

Princeton’s president, Christopher Eisgruber, addressed the talk over Dr. Katz throughout remarks on Saturday to alumni who had returned to campus for reunions.

He defended his document on free speech, and mentioned the college needed to act when school members violated conduct guidelines.

“We take these guidelines very severely right here and we imagine {that a} school member is certain by these obligations, no matter how distinguished they might be, and no matter what their political beliefs could also be,” he mentioned. “Political beliefs aren’t a motive to analyze anyone. They’re additionally not a protection for investigating anyone.”

The college’s assertion mentioned a 2021 investigation had “established a number of cases by which Dr. Katz misrepresented information or did not be simple” throughout its 2018 investigation into the connection with the undergraduate.

One such occasion, the assertion mentioned, was “a profitable effort to discourage the alumna from taking part and cooperating after she expressed the intent to take action.” The investigation additionally discovered that “Dr. Katz uncovered the alumna to hurt whereas she was an undergraduate by discouraging her from looking for psychological well being care though he knew her to be in misery, all in an effort to hide a relationship he knew was prohibited by college guidelines,” in keeping with the assertion.

These actions, the assertion mentioned, have been “not solely egregious violations of college coverage, but in addition totally inconsistent along with his obligations as a member of the college.”

Ms. Harris mentioned investigators had taken issues mentioned between Dr. Katz and his former pupil throughout bursts of anger and frustration at a anxious time and turned them into way more damning statements, which have been belied by context he offered in contemporaneous emails.

Dr. Katz and his allies identified that he had already been punished as soon as — by being suspended — for the connection, and contended that it was being resurrected as a pretext to retaliate towards him for the Quillette article. The article criticized anti-racist proposals in a July 2020 letter signed by greater than 300 Princeton school, college students and employees.

In essentially the most broadly quoted and reviled factor of his article, he known as a pupil group, the Black Justice League, a “small native terrorist group” that had made the lives of many college students, together with Black college students, depressing.

The firing was anticipated after Princeton’s president, Mr. Eisgruber, beneficial his termination in a Might 10 letter to the chair of the board of trustees.

The dismissal didn’t go easily. When informed that Princeton had introduced his firing, Dr. Katz’s spouse, Solveig Gold, mentioned: “That’s information to me. Now we have nothing.” She added, “It’s fairly damning that we don’t have it ourselves.”

She later mentioned Dr. Katz had found that the college’s discover that he was being fired had been despatched to the unsuitable e mail.