Collin College Professor Says He's Being Let Go After Asking Students to Wear Masks

[TexasTowelie]

A Collin College history professor who has been one of the loudest voices opposing the community college’s approach to COVID-19 safety, labor rights, and free speech will soon be out of a job.

Michael Phillips says he is being fired for exercising his constitutional rights. Technically, although it amounts to the same thing, the college is only declining to renew his contract—Collin College does not have faculty tenure, and full-time professors serve on a multi-year contract system. Collin College said in a statement that “the renewal or non-renewal of faculty contracts is a routine operational matter at the college,” and that “we are dismayed at the efforts of some individuals to present this as anything other than what it truly is.”

It’s a “routine operational matter” that has given college administrators headaches for over a year. Phillips is the fourth professor to say he is being let go for taking an outspoken stance on First Amendment issues and on the college’s COVID-19 protocols.

One of those professors, Lora Burnett, who also butted heads with administrators for tweeting disparaging remarks about then Vice President Mike Pence, recently settled with the college for $70,000. A lawsuit from another professor, Suzanne Jones, is ongoing.

Read more: https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2022/02/collin-college-professor-says-hes-being-let-go-after-asking-students-to-wear-masks/

[madaboutharry]

1. This is the ripple effect of MAGA world on our country.

It is insidious. It has creeped into every crevice of our culture. Suggesting that students wear masks is now the catalyst for losing your job.

I bet every professor who has been fired at this college has actually been let go “for being a trouble maker.” Which means not being someone who “goes along to get along.” You know how it works.