Law Prof Who was Allegedly Removed for Objecting to DEI Policies May See Justice

Law Prof Who was Allegedly Removed for Objecting to DEI Policies May See Justice

We covered the story of Scott Gerber when it broke last year. Peter Wood provides an update at the National Association of Scholars:

Subpoenas for All!

A year ago, I wrote a letter to Dr. Melissa J. Baumann, the president of Ohio Northern University, in which I urged her to intervene on behalf of Professor Scott Gerber, one of her faculty members, at ONU’s Law School.

Gerber was subjected to an unprecedented act by the Law School dean. In April 2023, he was forcibly removed from his class and taken to the dean’s office under armed escort. Without any explanation, the dean demanded Gerber’s resignation. Gerber shared his ordeal on the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal. In the following months, various academic freedom-minded organizations, including my own, sought to resolve the situation in Gerber’s favor. It soon emerged that President Baumann was supporting the dean’s actions, leaving Gerber in a deeply unjust situation.

What had Gerber done to provoke such a departure from academic norms? Nothing more than to criticize the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) regime that ONU had imposed top-down on the university. Gerber, who is a distinguished scholar by any measure of quality and quantity, and an outstanding and decorated educator, simply fell on the wrong side of a newly invented ideological litmus test.

I have never met Gerber, but as the matter lingered with no constructive solution in sight, I began to correspond with him and to write about his situation first in the form of letters and then as published articles. By my count, I commented on his situation seven times from May to December 2023. He and I also exchanged quite a few emails over this period. For a while, he was hard-pressed to find an attorney to represent him. He eventually acquired good legal representation but is still without a job. His case is before a local court in Ohio.

I had not heard much about it recently, but yesterday, a New York City sheriff was seeking me. At first, I didn’t know why, but then contacts in Ohio told me that the attorneys representing Ohio Northern University in the case have launched a fishing expedition to subpoena records from several individuals (and organizations) that have argued against the university’s position. To my knowledge, none of us who have been subpoenaed have had any involvement in the legal pleadings.

Yes, I regard the behavior of President Baumann, the ONU board, the law dean, and some of the other UNU functionaries as shabby. I believe they violated the law in terminating Gerber’s employment without just cause and likely also violated civil rights laws to implement DEI policies. But I have nothing material to add to the case.

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