TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Texas State will reinstate history professor Thomas Alter pending the outcome of the suit he filed against the University after Hays County District Judge Alicia Key granted an injunction in his favor on Friday afternoon.
Alter will be added back to the TXST payroll, but will not be allowed to teach classes as the University reviews his case, according to a statement from Texas State University.
In addition to being reinstated, Alter is asking the court to grant “backpay, front pay, compensatory damages, and punitive damages” as well as attorney’s fees and a declaration that his rights to due process and free speech were violated.
On Sept. 10, Texas State University President Kelly Damphousse announced on Facebook that Alter, an associate history professor at Texas State, was fired for comments made at the online Revolutionary Socialism Conference.
Alter claims the comments Damphousse alludes to were part of a broader discussion of so- cial movements he participated in as a member of the Social Horizon organization, not as a representative of the University. He claims the firing violated both his first amendment rights as well as his rights to due process as a tenured professor. He has filed a suit against Damphousse and Texas State to get his job back.
Alter’s lawyer, Amanda Reichek, who works for Texas American Federation of Teachers, said last Thursday prior to the Hays County court decision that Alter was seeking temporary relief in order to get back on the University payroll as the appeal plays out. “We want to have sort of a stop, look and listen internally before he has to litigate in court,” Reicheck said.
