Fresh off of court victory, Marquette professor John McAdams mounts challenge to cyberbullying policy

If you thought 72-year-old Marquette University professor John McAdams would ride off into the sunset after winning his high-profile Wisconsin Supreme Court case this summer, you thought wrong.

The professor who was suspended by Marquette in late 2014 after he publicly criticized a graduate student by name on his politically conservative blog — ostensibly opening her up to abusive comments on the internet — is now using his Marquette Warrior blog to challenge a move by the university's Academic Senate to develop a professional conduct and cyberbullying policy for faculty.

McAdams has returned to campus and continues to blog while on sabbatical this semester, writing a book.

He rehashed his case in a post last weekend, the night before the university's Academic Senate was to discuss developing a professional conduct and cyberbullying policy.

McAdams said the policy was foreshadowed by statements Marquette made when it lost the court case over whether McAdams had exposed the graduate student instructor to harm by naming her in a politically-charged blog post and linking to her personal blog, which included her contact information.

McAdams' suspension without pay, which lasted seven semesters, became a cause cèlébre among those who believe universities are liberal bastions that suppress conservative viewpoints.

The November 2014 post on McAdams' blog hit on the hot-button topic of same-sex marriage and whether graduate student instructor Cheryl Abbate limited a student's ability to speak against it in class.

McAdams argued it was important to publicly call out the graduate student's "misconduct" in her role as an instructor and that his contractually guaranteed right to academic freedom made it OK to do that through his blog.

A new cyberbullying policy for faculty could threaten academic freedom, McAdams says now.

RELATED:Wisconsin Supreme Court sides with Marquette professor John McAdams in free speech case

When the state's high court ordered he be fully reinstated without having to apologize to the graduate student or agree to a set of behavioral expectations, Marquette said it would work with faculty to re-examine its faculty conduct policies.

Academic freedom vs. cyberbullying

A new policy on cyberbullying is needed, Michelle Mynlieff, chair of the Academic Senate, said Thursday, because "there are differences between academic freedom and cyberbullying."

Those differences were made clear by the McAdams court case, Mynlieff said. 

"As an academic, it would be acceptable to criticize the hypothesis of a colleague I don't agree with," she said. "That's normal discourse. That's how we advance knowledge."

Academic freedom must be protected, Mynlieff said. But there also must be professional behavior in an academic setting, she said.

"We're looking at how to balance academic freedom while still having a reasonable amount of professional conduct. I think it's so much easier with the internet than it ever was before to harm someone."

Mynlieff said the Academic Senate would rather lead the development of policies for faculty behavior than have the administration "dictate it."

"We are not mouthpieces for the administration," she said.

McAdams was fully reinstated as a political science professor and awarded an undisclosed amount of back pay, damages and attorney costs after the state Supreme Court ruled 4-2 in July that his contractually promised right to academic freedom was violated by his suspension.

Marquette cited the professor's employment contract in its argument to justify his suspension.

The university accused McAdams of unprofessional conduct, arguing McAdams should have taken his concerns through internal channels in a manner consistent with professional standards in his contract.

McAdams is now writing a book, "60 Politically Incorrect Things You Should Know."

He told the Journal Sentinel in July that he planned to return to the classroom in January.

"It's good to be back doing what academics do — writing, researching and teaching — after three years in exile," McAdams said Friday in a statement released by his attorney, Rick Esenberg of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty.

"The fight was worth it, but if Marquette were the sort of university it should be, the fight would not have been necessary," he said.

McAdams last weekend blogged about the Academic Senate's meeting agenda, which described the Monday discussion as "what to include in its professional conduct/cyberbullying policy."

Cyberbullying does not apply to the McAdams blog post that got him into trouble with the university, according to his attorney.

"The Wisconsin Supreme Court made clear that academic freedom is not just allowing popular notions a voice, but all ideas, even those that to some may seem controversial," Esenberg said.

"It would be very disappointing if Marquette University refused to learn its lesson and took actions to further suppress speech on campus."