What to make of land acknowledgments?
Those brief statements, read before an event or posted on a website, that acknowledge that the land an organization sits on did not always belong to it.
Stuart Reges, a University of Washington teaching professor of computer science, is not a fan.
Reges' 2022 parody protest of UW's land acknowledgment erupted into a maelstrom of campus politics, with complaints filed, investigations commenced and two years of litigation dealing with themes resonant to this season of campus unrest: free speech rights, academic freedom and a university's right to minimize disruption.
A federal judge Friday dismissed Reges' lawsuit against the UW, ruling the disruption caused by Reges' actions outweighed his First Amendment rights.
UW says its land acknowledgment is part of efforts to create a welcoming environment, particularly for Native students. The one-sentence statement grew out of a yearslong process that involved consultation with tribal leaders and the governor's office, among others: "The University of Washington acknowledges the Coast Salish peoples of this land, the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Suquamish, Tulalip and Muckleshoot nations."
The statement, of course, doesn't actually return any land, or make any material change. Is it just performative? Or can it help further discussion and understanding of long-ignored issues?
Reges viewed it as an inappropriate political statement, something the university shouldn't be weighing in on.
After UW's Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering suggested that professors put a land acknowledgment in their syllabi, Reges responded by crafting his own acknowledgment. He said it was meant to be a parody. UW said it was mocking and offensive, dehumanizing and demeaning.
Reges put his statement on his office door, in his email signature and on his course syllabi: "I acknowledge that by the labor theory of property the Coast Salish people can claim historical ownership of almost none of the land currently occupied by the University of Washington."
Reges said that he knew people would be upset and was "causing trouble on purpose," because he disagreed with the UW's practice of encouraging land acknowledgments.
It did not go over well.
"This isn't just about me," Reges said in a statement Monday. "If professors are terrified they'll be kicked out of the classroom for the 'wrong' opinion, colleges will no longer be a vibrant place where important subjects are debated and discussed."
Students, faculty, staff and teaching assistants all complained to UW administration about Reges. One student, in an official complaint, wrote they felt intimidated and unwelcome. Another complaint described Reges' statement as "factually wrong, intentionally inflammatory and trauma-mocking." One Native student said the statement made them feel "directly despised and unsafe."
Three days after students first saw the syllabus, the director of the Allen School wrote to Reges that his statement was causing a disruption, was not related to course content and needed to be removed.
The Allen School opened an alternate section of the introductory computer programming class (a requirement for the major) Reges was teaching. About 170 of 500 students in Reges' class transferred to the new section, with a different teacher, even though the alternate section met at 8 a.m.
It's not the first time Reges has courted controversy or been rebuked by university leadership. In 2018, he published a nearly 5,000 word article titled "Why Women Don't Code," arguing, among other things, that boys are better at math and science, and girls are better at reading.
After that episode, Allen School leadership sent a schoolwide memo saying the school disagreed with Reges' conclusions.
In the current dust-up, UW went further. They removed Reges' statement from the online syllabus for his required intro course and created alternative versions of his course in the following semesters, for students who didn't want to take the class with Reges.
But they let him keep the statement on his office door, on his university website and in his email signature. He was not fired, suspended or demoted. Reges then wrote to an Allen School listserv saying he would continue putting his parody land acknowledgment in syllabi. More complaints flooded in.
The university began disciplinary proceedings and launched an investigation. Reges sued, naming UW President Ana Mari Cauce, as well as Allen School leaders and the dean of the college of engineering in his lawsuit.
He was represented by a legal team from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a national free speech organization.
"UW cannot justify suppressing Reges's speech by pointing to listener reactions," Reges' lawyers wrote in court documents. "They censored and punished Reges and threaten future punishment, because of his statement."
UW argued it wasn't the content of Reges' speech they objected to, but the disruption it caused.
"The University took modest action — so modest in fact that Reges was disappointed not to have prompted a more robust response from the University — to cure the disruption Reges's conduct caused," UW's lawyers wrote in court documents. "But Reges was always free to voice his views, including to utter, publish, discuss, and disseminate his land acknowledgment."
U.S. District Judge John Chun, on Friday, found for UW, dismissing Reges' lawsuit.
Chun pointed to a 1968 U.S. Supreme Court case, Pickering v. Board of Education, in which Marvin Pickering, an Illinois schoolteacher, was fired for a letter to the editor complaining about the School Board. The Supreme Court found for Pickering, but in doing so noted that the state's interest in promoting efficient public services can sometimes outweigh "the interests of the teacher, as a citizen, in comment upon matters of public concern."
Chun ruled that Reges' statement was related to his scholarship or teaching, but that it interfered with his duties as an instructor.
"While offense alone does amount to a legitimate interest to justify limiting speech, mitigating interference with students' studies and ability to learn can be such an interest," Chun wrote.
Reges' lawyers, on Monday, said they would appeal.
"This fight isn't over," they wrote. "Colleges cannot ask faculty to wade into a controversy, then punish them for swimming against the current."
Victor Balta, a UW spokesperson, said the university was pleased by the ruling.
"The removal of Stuart Reges' anti-inclusive land acknowledgment from a Winter 2022 course syllabus in response to the disruption and difficulties it caused to students, faculty, and staff was legal and appropriate," Balta wrote.
He said Reges remains a teaching professor with "the same academic freedom as all faculty."
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