Michigan Professor Resigns After Making Vulgar Welcome Video For Students

A Michigan professor has settled his legal battle with a local university by accepting $95,000 and agreeing to a three-year gag order, according to CBS Detroit. He also agreed to retire from the university rather than face possible termination after a judge refused to reinstate him last spring.

75-year-old Barry Mehler, who taught history at Ferris State for decades, came under fire back in January when he posted a vulgar 14-minute video on YouTube. The video received more than 500,000 views on the website and prompted the university to place Mehler on paid leave.

In the video, Mehler used profanities and made sexual references as he spoke about his attendance policy, grades and plagiarism. He also spoke about COVID-19, voicing his concerns with the university's refusal to require vaccinations and calling his students "vectors of disease."

"I will not take questions in class because I’m wearing this... helmet in order to stay alive," he said, referencing an astronaut-style helmet with air filters.

Ferris State president David Eisler said he was "shocked and appalled" at the time. Mehler, on the other hand, said his free speech rights were violated when he was suspended. "The whole idea was to get their juices flowing," Mehler told the AP in January. "But they also knew their grade was not based on predestination. That was simply humorous."

Mehler and the university agreed not to criticize each other further, and if the professor speaks out over the next three years, he will have to pay $60,000.