Compelled Silence is NOT Free Speech
Compelled Silence is NOT Free Speech
The Penn State Faculty Senate discussed free speech and faculty harassment at its first meeting of the 2023-2024 academic year. We hope they discussed the alarming allegations in this ongoing lawsuit.
Penn State professor resigns, sues university for reverse racial discrimination
Prepared by Liza Smaliak ’25 for the Free Speech Project at Georgetown University
(Click here to view the court document.)
A former professor of Pennsylvania State University at Abington sued the university, alleging he was discriminated against as a white person after he condemned the university’s race-based doctrines.
Key Players
Zack De Piero, assistant teaching professor of English and composition at Penn State Abington, worked at the university from 2018 until 2022, when he resigned. He now serves as an assistant English professor at Northampton Community College.
Pennsylvania State University is a public institution of higher education with 20 undergraduate campuses throughout the state. Penn State Abington describes itself as “the most diverse campus” within the university system.
The Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization “dedicated to advancing civil rights and liberties for all Americans, and promoting a common culture based on fairness, understanding, and humanity.” Most recently, FAIR filed an amicus brief in favor of the plaintiffs who won the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court restricted the practice of affirmative action in college admissions.