Conservative Professor Disciplined For Criticizing DEI Gets $2.4 Million To Settle Lawsuit Against College

By Jennifer Kabbany of The College Fix

‘To my colleagues at Bakersfield College and nationwide, I say: Keep the faith; we are winning the battle, one case at a time.’

A Bakersfield College professor who was investigated and disciplined after he questioned the use of grant money to fund social justice initiatives at his school has agreed to a $2.4 million settlement to resolve his lawsuit.

Matthew Garrett, formerly a tenured history professor at the California community college, will receive $2,245,480 divided into monthly payments for the next 20 years as well as an immediate one-time payment of $154,520 as “compensation for back wages and medical benefits since [his] dismissal,” according to the July 10 settlement agreement.

Also under the terms of the settlement, Garrett agreed to resign from his job with the Kern Community College District. Administrators, in turn, have withdrawn and sealed any and all accusations and reports accusing him of “unprofessional conduct.”

Bakersfield College and Kern district administrators did not immediately respond to an emailed request from The College Fix seeking comment Saturday.

Reached by The College Fix for comment via email, Garrett said he cannot discuss the settlement. However, he said he is able to speak on matters leading up to it.

“After five years of administrative misconduct, a decisive courtroom display exonerated me of all allegations and exposed that Kern Community College District engaged in flagrant retaliation for my questioning of partisan policies and wasteful expenditures,” he said via email.

“Facing an imminent ruling in my favor and the prospect of paying millions of dollars in damages, KCCD had only one viable option: settlement. I am grateful to the many who stood by my side during this difficult time and invite them to join in our triumph.”

“To my colleagues at Bakersfield College and nationwide, I say: Keep the faith; we are winning the battle, one case at a time.”

As The College Fix previously reported, part of the controversy dates back to at least 2019, when Garrett in a speech vigorously defended free speech on campus — including speech some deemed offensive and racist — as well as questioned grant funds that appeared to bankroll a social justice agenda.

Those concerns were then parleyed into accusations he accused his peers of fiscal malfeasance or misappropriation of funds, which led to an administrative determination against him.

In 2021, Garrett and his colleague Professor Erin Miller, who faced similar accusations, filed a federal lawsuit against the college district alleging their employers violated their civil and First Amendment rights and academic freedom.

Asked about the status of Miller’s claims against the district, Garrett told The Fix she is still employed as a professor at Bakersfield College but “continues to suffer retaliation by the administration,” including having several of her classes canceled.

While the two were co-plaintiffs on the same federal First Amendment lawsuit, after the district wrongfully targeted Garrett for termination, he said, that necessitated a separate state administrative court battle while their shared federal suit sat on hold.

“I am now dropping out of the shared federal lawsuit so she will continue on alone, and has ample grounds for litigation,” he told The Fix via email.

Garrett’s case has been covered extensively by higher education watchdogs, including Inside Higher Ed, which reported it in 2023 as a battle between a scholar expressing conservative views against administrators with a “long list” of allegations — claims that are now withdrawn from his record under the settlement agreement.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression had also come to the defense of Garrett, reporting in 2023 that he caused frustrations for DEI proponents on campus, but ones that were well within his free speech rights:

Animosity toward Garrett by some faculty and administrators increased over the past couple years as Garrett and several other faculty members associated with the Renegade Institute for Liberty — a Bakersfield College think tank Garrett founded — joined the faculty diversity committee. Other committee members say that the Renegade faculty have made it difficult for the group to get anything done by stalling campus diversity initiatives. But it was Garrett’s comments regarding a proposed racial climate task force during a diversity committee meeting last fall that led Bakersfield to recommend Garrett’s termination.

At the October 2022 meeting of the Bakersfield Equal Opportunity and Diversity Advisory Committee, Garrett criticized a proposal by professor Paula Parks to create a racial climate task force he felt might usurp the jurisdiction of the diversity committee. He also contested the student survey data cited as justification for the proposed task force and questioned the survey’s objectivity and the lack of evidence connecting the data presented and the proposed solutions. Several other faculty members in the meeting also challenged the veracity of the survey data. But ultimately, the committee voted to approve the creation of the task force.

On Nov. 15, Parks published an op-ed in Kern Sol News accusing Garrett and other Renegade Institute-affiliated faculty of a “disturbing pattern of actions” that “created negativity and division in the name of free speech.”

Fast-forward to today, and Garrett said the Renegade Institute for Liberty continues under the leadership of Bakersfield College history Professor Daymon Johnson, who also has filed a free speech lawsuit against the school. Most recently, in April, the institute hosted a webinar featuring Mark Goldblatt on the rise of subjectivity in society.

As for Garrett’s future plans, he said he is weighing his options, and will likely launch a line of social studies materials for homeschooling parents.

“My first product will be a Native American history course (which is my research and publication field) designed to fulfil California’s new high school Ethnic Studies requirement with original text, images, videos and more,” he said.

“…And of course, I intend to continue to advocate for free speech and institutional transparency at Bakersfield College and the broader academy. I will continue to speak at board meetings, campaign for candidates, and intend to write a biographical user’s manual for defeating the campus radicals, though that will take me some time to write and edit.”