Slate, compared the university’s policy on preferred pronouns to compelling a Jewish professor to call a student ‘my Fuhrer’ — adopted the view that the professor’s right to express his personal feelings about gender supersede the university’s attempt to prevent discrimination or the right of a transgender student to not be outed, misgendered, or demeaned in class because of her gender identity. “Traditionally, American universities have been beacons of intellectual diversity and academic freedom … They have tried not to stifle debate by picking sides,” Thapar wrote on behalf of the court. “But Shawnee State chose a different route: It punished a professor for his speech on a hotly contested issue.”Meriwether became enmeshed in the.