Education · Seattle-Tacoma, WA Metro · September 4, 2026
University of Washington Pays $600,000 to Settle Free Speech Lawsuit
What Alinsky tactic is being used
3 of the thirteen rules are in play here — campaigns rarely run just one.
Rule 13
“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”
The dispute was fought against one named man, not a policy: after the Allen School recommended a land-acknowledgment line in syllabi, Stuart Reges alone was investigated, had his syllabus statement removed by the university, was reprimanded, and was threatened with discipline. Freezing the conflict on a single teaching professor made the underlying question — whether a public university can require faculty to repeat a preferred political statement — look like one man's misconduct case rather than a rule affecting everyone.
Counter-Rule 13 · Radical Solidarity
Stand publicly with whoever has been singled out. Isolation is the whole mechanism; refusing it disarms the tactic.
When someone at your school, workplace or church is singled out over speech, refuse the isolation in writing: send a short signed note to the dean or board saying you are following the case and asking under which written policy the person was charged. Ask colleagues to sign one plain sentence of support that defends the process due to him without endorsing what he said. Attend the open meeting where it is discussed and be visible.
Rule 3
“Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.”
The fight was moved off ground the professor knew — teaching computer science — and onto administrative terrain the administration knew far better: an internal harassment investigation run under the university's Executive Order 31 anti-harassment policy. A syllabus sentence became an HR proceeding, where the institution set the rules, the timeline and the definitions. Notably, UW rescinded and replaced that policy while the appeal was pending.
Counter-Rule 3 · Preparation and Width
Prepare the unfamiliar ground before you are dragged onto it. "I don't know, I'll find out and come back" beats an improvised answer.
Prepare that ground before you are dragged onto it: this month, download your institution's academic freedom, anti-harassment and faculty discipline policies, note their policy numbers and adoption dates, and keep a copy offline in case they are revised. Learn who decides, what notice is required, and whether there is an appeal. If asked something procedural you do not know, say "I'll find out and come back" rather than improvising.
Rule 4
“Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
Both sides reached for a book of rules. The university applied its own anti-harassment code to a syllabus parody; the professor's counsel held the university to its own constitutional and academic-freedom obligations, and the Ninth Circuit ruled in December 2025 that officials violated the First Amendment — a settlement of $600,000 followed in August 2026. The tactic worked because the gap between the university's stated commitment to free inquiry and its actual practice was real.
Counter-Rule 4 · Radical Integrity
Close the gap between stated values and actual practice before anyone else finds it. This tactic only works where the gap is real.
Close that gap where you have influence rather than waiting for someone to find it. Read your own institution's or congregation's published statement on speech and discipline, and ask plainly whether the last three cases were handled the way the document says. Where practice and paper differ, put the discrepancy in writing to the body that adopted the policy, and ask that either the practice or the paper be corrected.
Chapter 3 sets out the rules; Chapter 15 answers each of them in turn. This is that pairing applied to this story.
Know where you stand
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