Ariz. professor who faced firing over e-mail draws support from free speech organization.

A tenured math professor at Glendale Community College who was facing termination for a holiday message he sent out on his college's e-mail system has reached a settlement with the college and will return to teaching classes in the fall.

Walter Kehowski was sent home on paid administrative leave in March by Rufus Glasper, chancellor of the Maricopa County Community College District--of which Glendale is a part--with a letter saying he had violated the district's "electronic communications for private or personal business, by disseminating a nonbusiness related e-mail."

The issue drawing complaints about the e-mail--which was a copy of George Washington's "Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of 1789"--was not Washington's message but an included link to conservative commentator Pat Buchanan's Web site, which includes criticism of U.S. immigration polices.

"This settlement is a crucial victory for freedom of expression and fundamental fairness," said Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights In Education, which launched a letter-writing campaign on the professor's behalf.

Kehowski, 45, who teaches calculus, pre-calculus and algebra, said he was stunned by the initial job action against him.

"I just thought it was an interesting thing for people to read," Kehowski said. "That afternoon, I was browsing and I came across the proclamation on Pat Buchanan's blog. I put a source link for the blog but that was all."

Kehowski, who has taught at Glendale for nine years, has been disciplined in the past by college officials for messages on the district-wide listserv system which were critical of a Latino student group's plans to hold a "Dia de La Raza" event on campus and also critical of multiculturalism and diversity.

Glasper's letter to Kehowski went on to say that in "September, 2005, you were suspended without pay for five working days for a violation similar to the incident mentioned above ..."

Kehowski said at the time he believed Dia de La Raza, which is held on many campuses as an alternative to Columbus Day, is a "blatantly racist event."

Kehowski has also drawn fire for information he previously had on his Web site that was critical of immigrants and U.S. immigration policies.

Latino activists attended a district Board of Trustees meeting to complain about him and his comments about the student group Movimiento Estudiantil de Aztlan, known as MeCHA.

In 2003, the president of the Arizona Association of Chicanos for Higher Education attended a meeting to complain that Kehowski's e-mail "labeling MeCHA as racist was highly slanderous."

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund sued the district in 2004, alleging that Kehowski's Web site and his e-mails comprised a "hostile work environment" for Latino employees. That lawsuit is still ongoing.

In an interview, Kehowski said he has long since removed any inflammatory information from his Web site and that he had no intention of offending anyone when he sent out the holiday greeting. He included Buchanan's Web address because that was where he found the greeting, he said.

"That's a common practice, to cite a Web address where you found something," Kehowski said. "It may be people are still nursing grudges after the fact, even though I thought I had put all that behind me. I certainly wasn't in the mood to do that again, to say the least."

His Web site at http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~wkehowsk/includes information on his math classes, calculus and the college chess club.

He said the thrum on which he posted the proclamation was a "relatively unstructured" district-wide distribution system that goes to faculty and staff members.

"People announce Women's History Month, Black History Month, how to buy a goat for orphans in Uganda, and that type of thing," Kehowski said.

Administrators with the Maricopa district declined to speak on the record, citing personnel privacy laws.

Glendale college President Velvie Green issued a written statement regarding the decision to try to fire Kehowski.

"I made the recommendation to terminate Dr. Walter Kehowski after careful consideration of all the facts including a recommendation by a peer-review committee that he had violated the Technology Resource Standards and other District policy," Green wrote in the statement. "I wouldn't have made the recommendation if I didn't think the Maricopa County Community College District had the grounds to terminate Dr. Kehowski."

The issue has attracted national press attention since Kehowski was placed on leave. The president of the Philadelphia-based FIRE, a national organization that defends free speech rights at colleges and universities, said he has received a lot of response about Kehowski's case.

"Walter Kehowski is a controversial figure whose strong opinions the MCCCD would much rather not have to deal with," according to FIRE's briefing on his case. The briefing went on to say that the district was trying to fire him "for nothing more than engaging in constitutionally-protected speech."

According to FIRE president Lukianoff, "recent e-mails sent over this very listserv include an advertisement for purchasing goats for orphans in Uganda, quotes about Women's History Month, and a reminder about the health benefits of eating bananas. To FIRE's knowledge, not one of the senders of these e-mails has been forced to cease teaching or threatened with dismissal."