Iowa Community College Settles with Adjunct Over Facebook Posts that Triggered Dismissal

Kirkwood Community College on Friday finalized an agreement to pay $25,000 to an adjunct professor who was fired for a Facebook post with a controversial political statement. The move allowed the college to avoid a First Amendment lawsuit.

In August 2019, after his social media posts criticizing President Donald Trump and evangelical Christians were picked up by news outlets, Kirkwood told adjunct English professor Jeff Klinzman to resign, or he would be removed from the classroom.

Klinzman then received legal representation from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE.

“Public colleges simply cannot fire professors because a small, vocal group of people online get upset,” said Greg Harold Greubel, staff attorney for FIRE’s Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project. “We are grateful that we were able to work with Kirkwood to resolve this matter and secure a good result for Jeff.”

The $25,000 Klinzman received from Kirkwood is around the amount Kirkwood would have paid him to continue teaching for over three and a half years. With the payment, Kirkwood also avoided a First Amendment lawsuit from FIRE.

“My struggle with Kirkwood was never about money, but about protecting my right as a college faculty member to exercise extramural free speech,” said Klinzman, who taught at Kirkwood since 2010. “I served my colleagues and students at Kirkwood for over 16 years and wish the college had agreed to reinstate me.

Klinzman will not return to work at Kirkwood Community College.