McAdams still waiting for Faculty Hearing Committee’s decision on whether to dismiss him from Marquette

It’s been almost two months after Faculty Hearing Committee meetings were held to recommend whether tenured political science professor John McAdams should be fired after his role in a widely-publicized controversy, and McAdams is still awaiting the decision.

The committee has 90 days, post-meetings, to make its decision, according to wisconsinwatchdog.org. McAdams was suspended with pay last December and ordered to stay off campus.

McAdams wrote a blog post last November that criticized the way a former teaching assistant handled a student disagreeing with her on gay marriage. The post provoked the Westboro Baptist Church to picket campus last December.

“If the committee comes down against me, Marquette will surely fire me and then, of course, a lawsuit will follow,” McAdams told Wisconsin Watchdog on the Jay Weber Show, on News/Talk 1130 WISN in September.

The committee’s decision isn’t binding but it will influence the final decision on McAdams’ future at the university.

“If they say Marquette shouldn’t fire me it will be hard for Marquette to fire me although they may try to anyway,” McAdams told wisconsinwatchdog.org last week on the Vicki McKenna Show on Newstalk 1310 WIBA. “If they say Marquette can fire me, it will be easier for Marquette, although not terribly easy because, No. 1, that would create a huge amount of bad publicity for Marquette and, No. 2, they have essentially been promised a lawsuit from my lawyers.”

View our interactive timeline to see the whole story of the months-long controversy.