Mike Adams (columnist)

Hailing from Clear Lake, Texas, Adams obtained an associate degree in psychology from San Jacinto College in Pasadena, Texas. He then transferred to Mississippi State University, where he was a brother of Sigma Chi, to finish his BA. He remained at Mississippi State to obtain a MS in psychology, followed by his doctorate in sociology. In 1993, UNCW hired Adams to teach in the criminal justice program. After being denied tenure, Adams sued UNCW and after a 7 year court battle was granted tenure as part of a settlement.[3] Adams won the Faculty Member of the Year award in 2000.[4] In June 2020, UNCW opened an investigation into Adams’s credentials after finding misleading information on his resume.[5]

Harbor House published Adams' first book, Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel, in 2004.[6] Sentinel published his second book, Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts "Womyn" On Campus, in 2008.[7] Later that year, Adams joined the faculty of Summit Ministries in Manitou Springs, Colorado, where he spends his summers lecturing against abortion and defending First Amendment rights on college campuses.[8] His third book “Letters to a Young Progressive: How to Avoid Wasting Your Life Protesting Things You Don’t Understand” was published by Regnery in 2013.

Adams has written several hundred articles as a conservative columnist for such publications as Townhall.com and The Daily Wire.

Adams has been widely criticized by his colleagues for bullying a student by name in a publication. The UNCW Academic Senate President says, “We wouldn’t have imagined that we would have to tell our colleagues that they shouldn’t make public statements about students in the media, on social media or anyplace for that matter.”[9]

Adams's employer, the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, recently said of his public comments on race, "These comments may be protected, but that is not an excuse for how vile they are. We stand firmly against these and all other expressions of hatred."[10] Meanwhile, students at UNCW have started a petition to have Adams’s teaching duties suspended.[11]

As of June, 2020 several petitions have collected thousands of signatures demanding that UNCW terminate Adams’s employment. Notably, 267 criminology professors and graduate students from across the U.S. delivered a petition which, in part states, “Professor Adams hides behind the veil of ‘free speech,’ but through his rhetoric on Twitter and his column he has harassed, threatened, and spread hateful speech against students and faculty.”[12]

Adams first came to prominence after the September 11 attacks, when a UNCW student emailed him requesting commentary on American policy errors in the Middle East. After Adams' dismissive reply, the student demanded for UNCW to grant access to his private emails.[13]

Later, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education stepped in to uphold Adams' remarks, as protected by the First Amendment.[13] As a result of this dispute, Adams became a vocal critic of "the leftist bias in academia", which he considers to be against free speech. Since then, Adams has been interviewed on national television by Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Megyn Kelly, and Pat Robertson.[14][15][16][17]

In 2007, Adams was denied a promotion by the UNCW administration and sued university officials, alleging religious and speech-based discrimination.[18] Adams specifically alleged that the university had discriminated against him on the basis of his Christian views and writings.[19]

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina initially granted summary judgment in favor of university officials.[18] Adams appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, where he was supported by the American Association of University Professors, Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, and Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which filed an amicus brief in his support.[20] In 2011, the Fourth Circuit reversed "the district court's grant of summary judgment as to Adams' First Amendment claims of viewpoint discrimination and retaliation" and sent the case back to the district court.[18] The Fourth Circuit, however, upheld the district court's grant on summary judgment to the defendants on Adams' Title VII and Equal Protection Clause claims, finding that there was "simply no direct evidence that the Defendants treated Adams differently based on his religious beliefs."[18]

In 2014, on remand in the district court, Adams won at a jury trial, bringing a seven-year legal battle to a close.[19] UNCW filed an appeal with the Fourth Circuit, but that appeal did not proceed because the parties settled the case. Under the terms of the settlement, Adams was promoted to full professor and received seven years' back pay.[21]

Adams is currently a member of the National Rifle Association and the National Association of Scholars.[22] Adams is a Christian and a former atheist.[23]

• Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel: Confessions of a Conservative College Professor, 2004.
• Feminists Say the Darndest Things: a Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts 'Womyn' on Campus, 2008.
• Letters to a Young Progressive: How to Avoid Wasting Your Time Protesting Things You Don't Understand, 2013.