Univ of Wash pays professor $600K after being punished for parodying land acknowledgments

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The University of Washington has paid a professor $600,000 after punishing him for parodying a land acknowledgment in his syllabus.

Reges parodied the university's land acknowledgment in his Computer Programming II class syllabus in January 2022. Instead of using the university's land acknowledgment, he wrote, "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."

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) said that Reges was punished for his actions.

"UW was not amused. University officials censored Reges’ parody statement from his syllabus and created a competing class, so students could choose not to take a computer science class from Reges. The university also initiated a nearly year-long investigation of Reges under an 'antiharassment policy,'" the organization said.

Reges said in FIRE's press release, "I am deeply grateful to FIRE for this legal victory which will remind public universities that they are obligated to respect the First Amendment rights of their students, faculty, and staff."

He added, "More importantly, I hope that my protest can help reverse a decade-long trend towards ideological conformity in academia and help to convince them that instead of 'protecting’ students from controversial ideas, they should be helping them to learn how to cope with disagreement. Only then can we heal the deep divisions that confront us today."

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