Conservative professor wins promotion, back pay in academic-freedom settlement

It took seven years of court battles, but conservative academic Mike Adams is now a full professor at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington.

Under a settlement reached Tuesday, the university agreed to promote Mr. Adams from associate professor to full professor of criminology at a salary of $75,000 per year, along with $50,000 in court-ordered back pay and $615,000 in attorneys’ fees.

“The university has chosen the right course in opting to stop defending its unconstitutional actions, to right the wrong done to Dr. Adams by granting him the promotion he has long deserved, and to protect him against future retaliation,” said Travis Barham, attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the professor.

“Other universities watching this should understand that disagreeing with an accomplished professor’s political and religious views is not an acceptable reason to deny him a promotion,” said Mr. Barham.

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