Evergreen State College will pay Professo Bret Weinstein $500,000 for failing to protect him from rampaging student protesters, according to a settlement agreement reached on Friday.
Weinstein and his wife, anthropology professor Heather Heying, who also works for the school, filed the suit over the summer, alleging that Evergreen failed to protect the couple “from repeated provocative and corrosive verbal and written hostility based on race, as well as threats of physical violence,” after Weinstein refused to participate in a planned “Day of Absence” on campus.
In an email to faculty and staff Friday evening, Evergreen’s president said they’d agreed to pay the couple $450,000 in damages and $50,000 in attorney’s fees. Both Weinstein and Heying also resigned their positions at Evergreen effective Friday at close of business; neither will return to teach at the school.
Evergreen prides itself on being a “progressive” college, but the leftism got well out of hand last year when students demanded Weinstein and other white professors vacate the campus for a day so that minority students could hold diversity workshops, and demonstrate how important minority contributions were to campus. When Weinstein — a self-described progressive himself — refused, students began a campaign of harassment, branding Weinstein a “racist” and threatening his safety.
Eventually, the leftist-on-leftist protest got so out of hand that Evergreen was forced to cancel classes. But the administration, Weinstein claimed in his lawsuit, never fully chastized the students — or even appeared to disagree with them. In fact, the administration never activated campus security, and students were forced to keep the peace themselves. Some vigilantes even patrolled the campus with baseball bats to handle violent outbursts.
Evergreen claims, in their email, that the settlement does not require they admit wrongdoing, and the administration maintains that they did the best they could in handling student protests.
“In making this agreement, the college admits no liability, and rejects the allegations made in the tort claim. The educational activities of Day of Absence/Day of Presence were not discriminatory. The college took reasonable and appropriate steps to engage with protesters during spring quarter, de-escalate conflict, and keep the campus safe,” the email read.
Outside observers would certainly disagree, and Evergreen has paid the price — literally. Evergreen’s enrollment has fallen dramatically and the school admitted that, by the end of fall semester, the resultant budget shorfall could force layoffs. Evergreen spokesman Zach Powers admitted Friday that money was a factor in settling Weinstein’s case so quickly.
“Years of expensive litigation would drain resources and distract from our mission to provide an outstanding education at reasonable cost to the veterans, first-generation college students, creative thinkers and future leaders who study at Evergreen,” Powers told local media.