Professor sues University of Texas for threatening his career in response to criticism of DEI, CRT policies

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Texas professor slams ‘activist’ faculty over pledge to support critical race theory

The University of Texas at Austin Associate Professor Richard Lowery discusses how faculty policy has shifted and impacted students.

A tenured professor sued the University of Texas at Austin after administrators allegedly made threats against him in the wake of his public criticism of the school’s critical race theory and diversity policies.

Dr. Richard Lowery, an associate professor of finance at the McCombs School of Business at UT-Austin, filed a complaint in federal court this month claiming that the university violated his constitutional right to criticize government officials at Texas’ flagship state university by punishing him for speaking out on controversial subjects.

Lowery has for several years been an outspoken critic of the school’s adoption and promotion of CRT, which he told Fox News Digital last year has "no scientific basis." He has also roasted the school’s move toward diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies that he said were used to filter out academics who opposed progressive ideology.

"But when University of Texas at Austin (UT) Professor Richard Lowery criticized school officials’ actions, engaged in traditional academic campus discourse, and asked elected state-government officials to oversee the school’s operation, UT officials campaigned to silence him," a recent court filing states.

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The University of Texas Austin campus at dusk. (iStock)

"They threatened Lowery’s job, pay, institutional affiliation, and research opportunities if he did not shut up," the filing said. "In the atmosphere they fomented, one of Lowery’s colleagues even asked UT police to surveil the professor because he might contact politicians or other influential people."

The filing claims that Lowery "got the message" and began to quiet down over fear of "retribution."

"He began self-censoring, throttling his social media use and altering the topics of his academic speeches," the injunction says. "That harm is ongoing. This court should put a stop to it."

Del Kolde, senior attorney at the Institute for Free Speech which is representing Lowery, told Fox News Digital there was a "concerted effort" by the school to "silence" Lowery in response to his public criticism of administrators in news publications and on social media.

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Dr. Richard Lowery

Kolde explained to Fox News Digital that Lowery was exercising his right to freedom of speech when he expressed the belief that taxpayer funds being used to promote CRT and DEI amounted to "ideological indoctrination."

"We're going to court on his behalf in order to protect his right to speak so he can start speaking again and be part of the conversation," Kolde said about the lawsuit.

"All he's asking to do is to be treated equally like other faculty members," Kolde went on., "If you're pro DEI at the University of Texas you can speak all day all the time talking about how great these DEI policies are. In fact, they have a grant program that pays people to go talk about it."

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The Austin, Texas, skyline. (Reuters/Brian Snyder)

Kolde added that even though Lowery is protected by tenure, the school can still punish him in a variety of ways, including stripping him of his affiliation with the Salem Center, which would cost him a $20,000 stipend, and limit his access to research opportunities. Kolde says the school has threatened to do both those things.

In a press release, the Institute for Free Speech said it has acquired documentation of school officials plotting to punish Lowery for his criticisms, including a comment from  Sheridan Titman, an official at the business school, that said, "We need to do something about Richard."

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The lawsuit is asking the court to "bar UT officials from threatening or acting on the threats made to Lowery for his protected speech" and also to declare that the "threats against Lowery amounted to unconstitutional state action designed to chill Lowery’s protected speech and retaliate against him."

"The injunctive relief is the most important thing," Kolde told Fox News Digital. "Because otherwise, every time he opens his mouth he has to be worried about, 'Shoot, are they going to try to remove my Salem Center affiliation are they going to try to find other ways to mess with me and maybe even go after my tenure?'

"You should not have to make that calculation as a public employee working for a public institution."

The University of Texas at Austin did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.