Palm Beach Atlantic University

In a letter to PBA president Debra Schwinn, AAUP Senior Program Officer Michael DeCesare wrote that Joeckel "was abruptly terminated prior to the end of (PBA's) term after complaints were made regarding his teaching a unit on racial justice... We hope you appreciate that if allegations against faculty members were commonly handled in this manner at Palm Beach Atlantic University, academic freedom and due process would have little meaning."
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) issued a faculty letter condemning PBA's decision and supporting Joeckel. The letter stated, "We are deeply concerned about the state of academic freedom at Palm Beach Atlantic University after PBA fired English professor Samuel Joeckel because material in the racial justice unit of his composition course was deemed to be 'indoctrinating students.'" Like the AAUP, FIRE wrote a letter to PBA and "urged the university to reaffirm its commitment to academic freedom and renew professor Joeckel's contract." PBA never responded …