Texas College Teacher Fired for Free Speech
Alter, a recently tenured professor, was fired after speaking in a personal capacity at an online conference on socialism. Photo: Committee to Defend Tom Alter
Support is building within the labor, academic, and Palestine solidarity movements in defense of Tom Alter, a history professor at Texas State University in San Marcos.
Shortly after receiving tenure, Alter was hastily fired on September 10 by university President Kelly Damphousse. He had spoken in his private capacity at an online socialist conference, where his presentation and comments were flagged by a self-described “fascist” and reported to the university administration.
Alter is a member of the Texas State Employees Union, part of the Communications Workers (CWA). After the Board of Regents upheld the firing in a November 20 appeal hearing, the Committee to Defend Tom Alter emphasized that the fight continues:
His firing ignored Texas State guidelines for removing tenured faculty, 85 years of academic norms established by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), broke Texas law governing tenure, and violated federal Constitutional rights guaranteed in the First and 14th Amendments.
Allowing Damphousse to get away with this firing weakens and chips away at two of our most important Constitutional Amendments whose significance goes way beyond the interests of professors and affects us all, especially the most vulnerable sections of society. We must stand the line and defend our basic democratic rights and prevent further inroads on these rights.
As Tom Alter has said from the beginning of this campaign, “This did not start with me and it does not end with me.” Instead of picking off an individual, Damphousse has ignited a movement for free speech.
Membership in the Texas State chapters of AAUP and the Texas State Employees Union has doubled since Alter's firing as workers unite to defend academic freedom and democratic rights across the state.
HASTY FIRING
Because the firing was made with no due process, even by the university’s own rules and Texas state law, District Judge Alicia Key ordered Alter’s temporary reinstatement. But Damphousse convened a pro forma “hearing” and confirmed the firing on October 6.
SUPPORT LABOR NOTES
BECOME A MONTHLY DONOR
Give $10 a month or more and get our "Fight the Boss, Build the Union" T-shirt.
It’s believed that Damphousse has acted under pressure from far-right Texas legislators and officials who see this case as a precedent for sweeping academic purges. There are additional cases of faculty, staff, and student repression at the school, including a Black freshman student coerced to withdraw by being threatened with criminal prosecution after allegedly mocking a Charlie Kirk memorial campus event.
The firing leaves Alter without income and his family without health care. Concerned academics and a network of activists around the country rapidly organized a Committee to Defend Tom Alter to demand his reinstatement, emphasizing that the issues at stake include basic democratic rights, academic freedom, and the right of socialists to teach. Committee coordinator Bill Mullen, professor emeritus of American Studies at Purdue University, said this case is important for defending the rights of all working people.
Alter’s defense has drawn support from the Texas branch of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the national AAUP and its Texas State University chapter, the Texas State Employees Union (CWA Local 6186), the Academic Freedom Alliance, Higher Education Labor United, and the Labor and Working-Class History Association.
The Organization of American Historians wrote, “We are deeply concerned whenever universities appear to act outside established channels for evaluating faculty, because such actions threaten not only individual scholars but the integrity of the profession as a whole.” Its letter urged university leaders to “uphold due process and resist actions that could set damaging precedents.”
The Committee to Defend Tom Alter called the firing “a political move to suppress progressive and leftist thought on campuses.”
“His firing and the stripping away of his and his family’s livelihood is a chilling reminder of the attacks waged on campuses around the country,” the Committee wrote. “Alter’s firing constitutes an attack on his fundamental civil liberties, and represents a threat to the democratic rights of all working people.”
WHAT’S NEXT
The campaign website includes letters of support that can be signed by academic workers and the public. An online event about the case on November 6 was hosted by Haymarket Books and co-sponsored by AAUP NYU, AFT Local 2121, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Labor for Palestine, among others. The recording can be found here.
Alter’s lawsuit against the university continues, and he will be on speaking tour in January.
David Finkel is an editor of Against the Current and a supporter of Jewish Voice for Peace and the Committee to Defend Tom Alter.
