Identity of Speakers
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Mark Higbee
Faculty/Staff
OtherMark Higbee was a professor of American history at Eastern Michigan University.
Resources
Additional Information
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Incident Nature:
Social media
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Incident Political Orientation:
Neither -
Incident Responses:
Faculty sanctioned
Litigation
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Incident Status:
Dismissed
- No protest Occured
- Did not involve Speech Codes
Summary
Mark Higbee was a professor of American history at Eastern Michigan University. In September 2016, racist graffiti appeared on the campus. Students protested, and the university instituted disciplinary action against the protestors. Almost a year later, a former student was arrested for vandalism. In the arrest’s aftermath, Higbee posted a message in a public Facebook group criticizing the university’s response to the graffiti and referring to African American administrators as “ ‘HN in C’ functionaries.” The university interpreted this phrase as a racial slur and suspended Higbee, without pay, for one semester. Higbee filed a grievance through his union, and an arbitration reversed his suspension.
On December 4, 2018, Higbee filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, alleging retaliatory discharge claims under Michigan’s Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act against the university and its Board of Regents, in addition to First Amendment relation claims under § 1983 against the individual Regents and other administrators who decided to punish him for the post. On July 1, 2019, the Court denied the individual defendants’ motion to dismiss the § 1983 claims. On appeal, the parties stipulated to a dismissal, and the case was dismissed on August 7, 2019.
