The University of Alabama’s former dean of students, who resigned last month after his tweets disrespectful of the U.S. flag went viral, did not walk away empty-handed.
Instead, former Dean Jamie Riley was given a severance package of almost $350,000, according to reports.
The lucrative parachute agreement was made public after Al.com, an Alabama news site, received the university’s documents via a public records request, and published it after obtaining it Oct. 11, more than a month after it was requested.
Mr. Riley’s position pays $175,000 a year, although he had been in his post for just seven months when his tweets became public. His resignation package contained $127,450 in “compensatory damages” in addition to lost wages, according to the report.
On Twitter in 2016 and 2017, Mr. Riley jeered at the American flag and law enforcement as symbols of racism and oppression.
“The [American] flag represents a systemic history of racism,” read one tweet Mr. Riley sent in September 2017. “Police are a part of that system. Is it that hard to see the correlation?”
Another tweet from Mr. Riley read, “I’m baffled about how the 1st thing white people say is, ’that’s not racist!’ when they can’t even experience racism? You have 0 opinion!”
Mr. Riley resigned Sept. 4, the same day Breitbart exposed the tweets.
No fault was acknowledged by Mr. Riley or the University of Alabama in the agreement, but its terms prohibit either side from commenting.
The University of Alabama this semester has 38,103 students, 75% of whom are white, 10.5% black and 4.8% Hispanic, according to the school’s Office of Institutional Research and Assessment.
• James Varney can be reached at jvarney@washingtontimes.com.
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