Boise State Professor Won't Be Fired for Criticizing 'Radical Feminists,' Says University
Boise State University political science professor Scott Yenor was threatened with misconduct and had students calling for his firing after he wrote an opinion piece criticizing "radical feminism" that was published by a conservative online news outlet.
In an email sent to The College Fix last Friday, however, Boise State School of Public Service Dean Corey Cook said "there is not, was not, and will not be any investigation or 'findings' or anything pursued against him."
"He is a tenured professor in good standing at Boise State. We will defend his rights to academic freedom as we will for all of the faculty in our college," Cook told The Fix.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"While I understand the concerns expressed by those bothered by his work, we have consistently and unequivocally defended his academic freedom and will neither censor or censure him for expressing his ideas, grounded in his scholarship, for a popular audience."
Over the summer, Yenor penned a report for The Heritage Foundation as well as an article for The Daily Signal denouncing transgender activism and radical feminism.
Both works were critical of the transgender rights movement, with The Daily Signal piece arguing that feminists and LGBT activists were "seeking to undermine parental rights."
"Transgender rights activists are seeking to abridge parental rights by elevating the independent choices of young children," wrote Yenor in August.
"Respecting the sexual and gender 'choices' of ever-younger children erodes parental rights and compromises the integrity of the family as an independent unit."
Yenor's work garnered controversy among both students and faculty at Boise State, with at least one online petition demanding that he be fired.
"Boise State University professor Scott Yenor has recently published an article that threatens the existence of queer and non-binary folks by promoting rhetorical violence against their livelihood," claimed a petition signed by over 2,000 people.
"For multiple reasons, Yenor is unfit to teach, but largely that he promotes an ideology of violence is grounds for his dismissal."
The Alliance Defending Freedom's Center for Academic Freedom represented Yenor in the event that he was punished for his work.
ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer said in a statement released Monday that he approved of the university's affirmation that they will not discipline Yenor.
"We are concerned that the university partially entertained the baseless arguments of those who would condemn and investigate him for 'hate speech,'" stated Langhofer.
"We will continue to monitor the situation and stand ready to assist professor Yenor if the need arises in the future."
