Christian professor who criticized DEI wins battle for tenure at Michigan State U.

The College Fix

By Pedro Rodriguez-Aparicio

July 11, 2025

Civil rights group says school violated professor’s First Amendment rights

An accomplished nematologist now has tenure at Michigan State University after initially being passed over following her criticism of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

Professor Marisol Quintanilla recently won tenure from the public university in Lansing after intervention from the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism.

The civil rights group intervened after Quintanilla (pictured) failed to obtain tenure despite two decades of teaching experience and “21 peer-reviewed publications, over $6.2 million in grants, and 189 extension talks,” according to a news release.

The group argued in a January letter that the school discriminated against Quintanilla after she faced backlash in 2022 for criticizing DEI policies. She also declined to list her gender on university forms, “believing these questions implicitly endorsed ideological positions contrary to her faith.”

“FAIR’s advocacy for Dr. Marisol Quintanilla reflects our core commitment to protecting academic freedom and ensuring that faculty members can express their deeply held convictions without facing professional retaliation,” a spokesperson for the non-profit told The College Fix.

Michigan State U. said the letter did not lead to tenure.

“A letter from any outside organization would have no bearing on the review process,” spokeswoman Amber McCann told The Fix via email.

“Each submission for reappointment, promotion and tenure (RPT) review is considered on the merits of the case, according to university policy and procedure,” McCann said.

A free speech group who previously helped Professor Quintanilla called the resolution a “positive outcome.”

“The university cannot dictate a professor’s speech. It is a positive outcome that the university reversed course and offered the professor tenure,” Graham Piro with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression told The Fix on a phone call.

In 2023, the group helped Quintanilla when her department chair, Hannah Burrack, mandated the professor “write a DEI statement as part of her annual review.” Burrack also had asked Quintanilla to retract an article criticizing diversity initiatives.

The College Fix contacted Burrack via email on Thursday morning to ask for her side of the story, but she deferred to McCann, the university spokeswoman. She said DEI statements are not required for performance reviews.

Piro said the university did not act in alignment with previous court decisions, where courts sided with people who chose not to disclose their gender identities.

“It is worth noting that there is a decision from a 2006 Circuit Court of Appeals that was a violation of the professors first amendment right and expression of religion,” Piro told The Fix on behalf of the free speech group. “The court believed that addressing the student by their identity fell on the ideological side.”

“If there is a blanket requirement of the preferred pronouns it would be an infringement of the First Amendment right,” Piro said.

“Universities have the right to limit faculty speech in a particular way but a generic requirement that dictates how a faculty is addressed would not be allowed.”