An Emory University law professor suspended last year for twice using a racial slur should be fired, according to a letter citing the law school's dean.

James Hughes Jr., who stepped down as interim dean of Emory's School of Law last month, has asked the university Faculty Hearing Committee to strip Paul Zwier of his tenure and terminate him, according to two letters the American Association of University Professors sent to university administrators.

Hughes cited "moral delinquency and incompetence" as grounds for dismissing Zwier for using a racial epithet while teaching a first-year torts class last year.

Hughes also contended that Zwier's subsequent use of a variation of the slur reserved for white people while talking with a black law student about the professor's own experience growing up, demonstrated "extremely poor judgment."

"His judgment appears to be so poor, and his ability to communicate appropriately with students seems to be so impaired, that he cannot be trusted to refrain from using the racial slur or other derogatory language again in the future," Hughes wrote in a June 10 letter  to Emory's Faculty Hearing Committee chair that was cited by the AAUP.

Meanwhile, the AAUP and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education,  which both defend academic freedom, have written letters to the law school demanding that Zwier be reinstated. The organizations warned that any attempt to fire Zwier for using the epithet in a classroom context would violate principles of academic free speech.

Zwier's suspension and banishment from the law school campus is entering a second year, and his courses do not appear on the law school's Fall 2019 schedule. A closed hearing with the faculty committee is set for Oct. 4, said Zwier's attorney, Lee Parks of Atlanta's Parks, Chesin & Walbert. The committee holds hearings, issues findings of fact and makes recommendations to the university when a faculty member faces suspension or possible termination.

Parks said Hughes recommended Zwier's termination in June after the professor asked for a hearing on his indefinite suspension. Hughes does not have authority to discipline Zwier without the faculty committee's approval, Parks said.

Emory University spokeswoman Laura Diamond confirmed the matter has been referred to the Faculty Hearing Committee. She declined to comment further.

While Hughes  has argued to fire Zwier outright, Emory's Office of Equity and Inclusion recommended a lesser sanction. It concluded in a December 2018 report that Zwier should be suspended without pay and that his banishment from the law school and his faculty office remain in place.

The OEI recommended that Hughes determine the length of any unpaid suspension and reminded him that first-year law students, some of whom were in Zwier's class when he first used the slur, would not graduate until 2021.

Zwier first used the slur during a torts class for first-year law students in August 2018 while discussing a 1967 Texas case brought by a black NASA mathematician after he was denied service and thrown out of a hotel dining room.

In asking whether the manager likely used a racial epithet when he grabbed the black man's plate and shouted at him to leave, Zwier uttered the epithet and then called on a black student.

Zwier issued two written apologies and agreed to refrain for two years from teaching any course where students had no option to choose another professor following a campus rally organized by the Black Law Students Association. Zwier also was required to undergo sensitivity and bias training.

Hughes suspended Zwier in November after a law student said that during a private meeting with Zwier, the professor said he had been called a variation of the epithet, even though he had been warned not to use the word again.

Hughes said he also banished Zwier from the law school campus because the professor's presence was "needlessly disruptive," according to correspondence between Emory and the AAUP.

The AAUP intervened on Zwier's behalf after retired Emory law professor William Carney called on the organization and the American Bar Association to censure the university and place it on academic probation over its treatment of Zwier.

"We are … troubled by the serious substantive issues this case poses, as Professor Zwier has plausibly claimed that the action against him was affected in violation of his academic freedom," Gregory Scholtz, director of the AAUP's Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Governance, said in a May 15 letter to Emory president Claire Sterk.

"Rules that ban or punish speech based upon its content cannot be justified. An institution of higher learning fails to fulfill its mission if it asserts the power to proscribe ideas—and racial or ethnic slurs, sexist epithets, or homophobic insults almost always express ideas, however repugnant. Indeed by proscribing any ideas, a university sets an example that profoundly disserves its academic mission."

In a follow-up letter in July to Provost Dwight McBride, Scholtz warned administrators: "While the AAUP opposes harassing and discriminatory treatment of students, it also takes the position that ideas relevant to the topics being discussed in a class cannot be suppressed only because students might find them offensive."

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education also warned Emory to rescind the sanctions.

"Faculty members' academic freedom includes the choice to deploy material or language germane to their teaching that might offend, shock, or anger their students," the letter from Adam Steinbaugh, director of FIRE's individual rights defense program, stated.  "That freedom does not render its exercise wise in every instance, nor immunize the faculty member from criticism, whether from the university's leadership, from students, from colleagues, or from the general public."

"Emory University is free to criticize Zwier's choice, but … its commitment to academic freedom obligates it to abstain from punishing unpopular or offensive speech falling short of actionable harassment," Steinbaugh said.

But Emory's Office of Equity and Inclusion concluded that "multiple use of the 'n' word by Mr. Zwier did not serve any scholarly purpose and … its use was not in the context of academic freedom."

OEI also recommended that Hughes consider investigating whether Zwier's use of the racial epithet and its derivative violated the university's conduct standards. 

Hughes apparently took that advice, according to the AAUP. 

The AAUP's July 10 letter to McBride cited Hughes' letter to the faculty committee outlining his grounds for firing  Zwier. Hughes claimed Zwier had violated Emory standards of conduct by engaging in "inappropriate, disruptive, discourteous, or irregular behavior" that adversely affected the campus population.

He also contended that Zwier demonstrated "extremely poor judgment," and that Zwier's request for a hearing before the faculty committee "cast doubt on the sincerity of his apology and his fitness for continued service."

"In my 27 years on the Emory Law School faculty, I have never experienced the level of disruption and turmoil that has been created by Professor Zwier's actions," Hughes wrote. "Indeed, many students of color have been reluctant to engage in efforts to recruit other minority students to Emory Law School, and some have indicated a desire to transfer out of Emory Law. Moreover, the incident has had an overwhelmingly negative impact on the reputation of the law school." 

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Correction: This story has been updated to correct a reference to a student's year in law school.