Prof Fired for Conservative Views Seeks Damages, Reinstatement

by Jim Brown and Jenni Parker
November 4, 2004

(AgapePress) - A former professor at a New York community college claims he was fired because of his conservative political and religious beliefs. Dr. Michael Filozof has filed a First Amendment lawsuit against Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York, alleging liberal members of the school's Political Science Department waged a campaign of harassment and ridicule against him.

According to Filozof's representative, attorney Nelson Thomas, his client's support of President George W. Bush and the Iraq War sealed his fate. The lawyer says the official argument that the school gave for letting the instructor go "was that he was not a good citizen and he was philosophically conservative. [Those] were the two reasons that they came up with."

Meanwhile, Thomas says, "In the evaluations that he received from the college -- even the ones in which he was terminated -- they went through what a wonderful teacher he was, how well respected he was by all members of the student body, including Democratic students in his class. Democrats were very supportive of him."

However, the attorney notes that the otherwise widespread appreciation of Filozof was not shared by the political science department at Monroe Community College, which he says clearly does not value ideological diversity in earnest. "The leadership in the department was definitely left wing," he points out, "and a lot of the other faculty members and staff were left wing and did not support a diversity of viewpoints."

"That's kind of funny," Thomas adds, "because you always hear people on the left wing and liberals saying they're so supportive of diversity and other views. But when it comes time to have diverse views in favor of President Bush or the Iraq War or Christian viewpoints, of course they don't want to have those heard."

According to a report from Accuracy in Academia's news website, CampusReportOnline.net, Filozof was the victim of "a scurrilous whispering campaign" carried out by two professors who found his political views hard to take. Reportedly, the professor had placed an American flag sticker on his door with a caption in support of President Bush beneath it, and shortly afterward he discovered another note had been placed nearby. That note warned him that his pro-Bush sticker was "inappropriate."

Although the note was anonymous, it was written on the very same stationery used by two professors whose entries in Filozof's personnel file were the only negative commentary on his job performance. Those minority reviews are believed to have led to MCC's failure to renew the professor's contract in December 2003.

Filozof contends those negative comments were based on misinformation and disinformation in his record, such as complaints of sexual harassment from two left-wing faculty members -- a woman and a homosexual man, both in their sixties. And another false accuser once claimed Filozof had brought a gun to school, jumping to this conclusion after he mentioned he was going hunting after work.

The former MCC faculty member alleges his constitutional rights were violated and his door was defaced by members of the political science department. Thomas is seeking all damages available to Filozof, including his lost wages, and is asking the court to order that his client be reinstated at the college.