Nev.prof. Math standards advocate fights termination lawsuit

A tenured math professor appeared in court again Monday and sought to revive the First Amendment case. The U.S. District Court dismissed the case last year.

Truckee Meadows Community College in Nevada in 2021 moved into the fire Lars Jensen cited two consecutive unsatisfactory performance evaluations that accused him of, among other things, “insubordination”.

One of the allegations of insubordination involved Jensen distributing fliers at the state math summit criticizing the university’s math standards; Truckee Meadows administrators said the move disrupted the meeting. Jensen said the university is also watering down the math curriculum while introducing a foundation support program for students.

In November 2021, university president Karin Hilgerson said she accepted the recommendation of a special faculty hearing committee to keep Jensen in office. However, Jensen filed a lawsuit against university officials in January 2022, alleging, among other things, retaliation for First Amendment-protected speech on matters of public concern. Among their demands was that the university remove negative information from the personnel file.

A U.S. District Court for Nevada judge dismissed the case in September 2023. Jensen is now petitioning the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to revive the case; Oral arguments took place yesterday and a decision will be made.

“Distributing this document was a form of public service,” Jensen said after the hearing. He said the university wants to graduate more students, and if “the administration has a say in what goes on in the classroom, what the curriculum is, how you grade, then that balance disappears; the stabilizing power of the faculty, I would say, disappears, and the university will drift into corruption.” .”

Jensen is represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. FIRE attorney Daniel Ortner told Ninth Circuit judges on Monday: “Distributing material when your supervisor, your dean, does not want you to do so is not insubordination under the precedent of this court.”

“Our standard protocol is that TMCC does not comment on ongoing legal matters,” a college spokesperson said in an email.