Florida Professor Claims Job Threatened for Teaching About Racism

An English professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University said his teaching contract has been put on hold after complaints about his instruction on race and racism.

The professor, Samuel Joeckel, said in an email that the dean of his department and the university’s provost waited outside the class he was teaching last week to inform him of the news.

“On Feb. 15, I concluded a class and walked out of the classroom to find the provost and the dean of the school of liberal arts and sciences waiting for me,” Joeckel wrote. “They asked to speak with me privately. We stepped back into the classroom. The dean had an envelope in his hand and gave it to me. He said that the letter inside was to notify me that my contract was being delayed pending a review of the material I use in my racial justice unit. I asked him what the concern was. He said that the concern was that I was ‘indoctrinating students.’ He said the president of the university received an angry phone call from a parent of a student. He ended the meeting by saying that he had to leave in order to prepare for the arrival of [Florida governor] Ron DeSantis on campus for a speaking engagement.”

Joeckel, who said he has taught Palm Beach Atlantic for more than 20 years, does not have tenure. The university does not offer tenure. An FAQ on working at the university says, “PBA does not offer tenure; all beginning faculty sign a one-year letter of agreement. After several years of service, faculty may enter an application process in order to receive two- and then three-year letters of agreement, which upon on-going exemplary service, automatically roll-over [sic].”