University of Arizona (UA) English professor Matthew Abraham was placed on administrative leave last month after several years of challenging the school’s DEI policies. UA Provost and Chief Academic Officer Patricia Abraham, who was hired by UA in 2013, wrote a letter to Dean J.P. Jones in 2017 showing how the school was violating Prop 107, a ballot measure I chaired in 2010 which banned affirmative action in public education, employment and contracting.
He’d noticed that in order to get around the law, some faculty members at the school were using “subjectivity” to act as proxies for race, gender and sexual orientation when choosing who to accept into graduate programs. They labeled white male applicants with “problematic subjectivity.” Many prospective students apply to UA’s graduate programs because they want to work with the neighboring indigenous populations, but faculty members questioned their sincerity unless they were minority females.
Abraham, who previously chaired UA's Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure (CAFT), filed a public records lawsuit against the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) in 2021, alleging the university withheld documents related to DEI hiring and promotions in violation of Arizona and federal law. His lawsuit also exposed DEI practices in creating Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) status. He said the withheld records, if released, would reveal systemic lawbreaking.
Title V of the Higher Education Act provides grants to institutions meeting a 25% Hispanic enrollment threshold. Lawsuits over it argue that the enrollment-based eligibility acts as a;quot;racial quota quot; excluding non-qualifying institutions from federal funds even if they serve low-income or Hispanic students below the threshold. By admitting inflated levels of minorities and excluding whites, UA can maintain HSI status.
A lawsuit was filed in Tennessee earlier this year challenging HSIs as unconstitutional. The DOJ declined to defend the program, filing a statement of interest agreeing with the plaintiffs that the racial/ethnic criteria are unconstitutional, akin to the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which banned race-conscious admissions. The Department of Education then ended discretionary grant funding for HSIs and similar minority-serving institutions (MSIs) in September 2025.
Since Abraham’s lawsuit directly addresses the same issue, it makes no sense for the courts not to require UA to produce the records.
UA refused to show him a memo that had been written about his complaint, and withheld key evidence such as application letters from people who were finalists for positions, only releasing redacted resumes. Some applicants have Zoom recordings that are still online, yet the university denies they exist.
Abraham posted on X in late August, “All of these charges are desperate attempts to establish flimsy pretexts to justify my dismissal in retaliation for a public records lawsuit that I brought against the Arizona Board of Regents four years ago for withholding records around DEI hiring and promotion.” He added that “fraudulent DEI hiring practices are at the center of creating HSIs.”
The UA attempted to justify his firing with red herrings, claiming that it was due to insubordination toward administrative superiors, misuse of his university email account to demean and harass university employees, improperly holding outside employment and refusing to perform assigned duties. The Dean even claimed she’d heard that he had an affair with a student — but zero evidence has been provided.
Abraham described the accusations in his appeal as “patently false.” He explained how other professors haven’t disclosed certain outside positions, including former UA President who served dually as a fellow with the Hoover Institute. The alleged harassment pertained to things like Abraham telling a staffer that he was considering adding her name to his grievance over being let go, and revealing issues “from malfeasant University selection processes to state government corruption.”
After he lost his lawsuit at the appellate level, the Goldwater Institute submitted an amicus curiae brief with the Arizona Supreme Court in support, explaining why the public records are required by law to be released. That court has agreed to hear oral arguments.
The Association of American University Professors sent a letter of concern to UA on behalf of Abraham, objecting to placing him on paid administrative leave without a prior faculty hearing or opportunity to respond to allegations.
A coalition of faculty and civil rights advocates sent a letter to the current UA president and Prelock on September 4, demanding an investigation into alleged DEI-related retaliation and corruption, citing Abraham's case as emblematic.
This isn’t even all of the retaliation Abraham has experienced. In 2022, he was deemed "ineligible" for further faculty service roles. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) sent a letter to the university expressing concern about how he and two other professors were not given fair consideration to remain on CAFT.
He lost his position as an Assistant Attorney General with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office (AGO) earlier this year, he believes as a result of collusion between ABOR and the AGO. Dr. Keiron Bailey, a professor of Educational Policy Studies and Practice at UA, sent a letter to the AGO about the conflicts of interest regarding the AGO representing ABOR in his own public records lawsuit against ABOR.
Abraham had an outstanding academic history until the retaliation. The 22-year professor previously taught at DePaul University and the University of Tennessee, and was promoted to full professor within three years of working at UA. He served terms on the prestigious Committee of Eleven and the Shared Governance Committee Director Composition and Teaching English program. His reviews on Rate My Professors are overwhelmingly positive — and the ones that weren’t merely said he was a tough grader.
Sadly, no professors at the UA will publicly support him, no doubt terrified of retaliation. When a minority professor can be fired for standing up to illegal DEI policies, the left’s policies have become out of control.