Federal judge aims to kick-start negotiations between SUNY Fredonia and banned professor

Lawyers for Stephen Kershnar, who has taught philosophy courses at Fredonia since 1998, filed a lawsuit in June in U.S. District Court in Buffalo asking the court to declare that Fredonia’s administrators violated his First Amendment rights by removing him from the classroom and barring him from campus. They’re seeking his return to campus.

But Fredonia officials fear the potential campus disruption his return could cause. In past court appearances, lawyers for the university cited threat assessments by the former police chief at SUNY Fredonia that the “return of Kershnar to our campus would pose an unacceptable risk of violence.”

Assistant Attorney General Christopher Boyd told a federal judge Tuesday that the university would focus on “dollars and cents walkaway money” in settlement discussions with Kershnar’s lawyers.