The bumper sticker smothered door of University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Dr. Mike S. Adams usually leaves would-be knockers intimidated and reconsidering their visit with such a seemingly challenging individual. Greetings to all prospective visitors include confrontational slogans such as “Right is Right-Left is Wrong” and “Proud member of the National Rifle Association.” But if personal philosophies can be temporarily set aside those brave knockers find, behind the caveat covered door, a simple office utilized by a charming and respectful man. This may perplex any who keep up with local media and are aware of the reputation that follows this associate professor of criminology who describes himself as a Christian, conservative and provocateur. “I am in a fight in a war right here on our campus: The campus culture war,” said Adams. Dr. Adams left Starkville, Mississippi in 1993 after graduating from Mississippi State University. After earning a Bachelor’s in Psychology, a Master’s in Social Psychology and a Doctorate in Sociology and Criminology, he followed fair weather to Wilmington to take his current job teaching in the UNCW Department of Criminology.

“I came out of college a liberal,” said Adams in a reluctant manner. “But I was more a classical liberalist. I was taught by actual liberals.” Dr. Adams explained how his professors filled him with ideals similar to those of classical liberalism: equality under the law, limited government and free markets. “I wasn’t taught by extremists,” declared Dr. Adams, referring to the many professors both at UNCW and at countless other universities across the nation, who he believes preach their own personal opinions and views instead of course information to students.

“It was an issue by issue switch,” said Dr. Adams on how he left his liberal tendencies. After the shooting of his close friend in 1993 and a visit to an Ecuadorian prison in 1996, Dr. Adams rethought his personal convictions and re-defined himself as a devout Christian and active conservative. It was in 2002 that Dr. Adams began to write online articles for www.townhall.com. This medium allowed him to voice his Christian and conservative convictions as well as criticize the university, provide his own brand of common sense and simply stir the pot here at “UNC-Wonderland,” as Adams puts it. “Controversy basically started my career. It was 9/11 that really launched it all,” Dr. Adams reminisced. Shortly after the attack on the Twin Towers, Dr. Adams and other members of UNCW’s faculty received an e-mail from a student, “a real leftist-Marxist,” according to Adams. In the e-mail the student placed the blame for tragedies in New York City on the United States of America. Dr. Adams, upon receiving the e-mail, detailed his criticisms of the conspiracy theory and complied with requests to forward. The student reacted to the criticism by falling back on student speech codes put in place by the university. Dr. Adams was threatened with a libel suit by the student and university for his response to the students e-mail. Under the then current student speech codes, the student claimed he had “created a hostile environment in which she was harmed emotionally,” Dr. Adams said. The university administration read through Dr. Adams’s e-mails with no court order, prompting Adams to bring a suit against UNCW and challenge the student speech codes. Adams won his case, defending his First Amendment right and achieving his sought after reform in student speech codes. No longer are the codes based on anti-harassment policies, and emotional harm does not factor into what can or cannot be said.

This is Dr. Adams’s crusade, or rather, his “fighting in the campus culture war.” Describing himself as “a foot soldier,” he has taken his campaign against unconstitutional student speech codes all across the nation to multiple universities. “I am always on the student’s side,” he says.

Controversy struck again when, in 2006, Dr. Adams was denied a promotion to “full professor,” and he shifted gears to battle once again for his own rights. His performance as an associate professor was reviewed numerous times from 1993-2004 and was given “nothing less than marks of excellent.” With the 1998 UNCW Professor of the Year and the 2000 Faculty Member of the Year Awards, Adams couldn’t help but think that “the powers at UNCW are punishing me for my public criticism of the diversity movement.” In March of this year, a federal court rejected this claim that UNCW committed ‘viewpoint discrimination’ and accepted the university’s motion to dismiss the suit.

Judge Malcolm J. Howard held that Adams failed to prove the university denied him the promotion based solely on his Christian and conservative views. These views were expressed in Adam’s online columns, and were not to be considered protected by his work related freedom of speech-that is, until he included them in his dossier with his application for promotion. The decision references a 2006 Supreme Court case, Garcetti v. Cabellos, and is stirring strong amounts of dissent from Adams’ supporters.

But Dr. Adams constantly proves driven and resilient. In late February, Adams pointed the finger back at UNCW with the publication of his “Wigger Please!” article on Townhall.com. The piece takes his fight to Maurice Martinez, an education professor here at UNCW. His mandatory course for all education majors, EDN 200: Teacher, School and Society, teaches students the importance and relevance of “Black English.” Mike Adams encourages students and parents to tell UNCW that “Professor Martinez is whack! I want my money back, or I want my scrilla, ‘fo rilla!”

“The future will hold more of the same,” said Adams. “Win lose or draw, I will intensify my efforts in all areas.” To some, Adams may simply be living up to what he describes as his reputation on campus “of strong disdain” from administration and colleagues. To others, Mike S. Adams is a passionate protector of First Amendment rights. Either way you view him, you can rest assured that he will continue to play his role of the pot stirring provocateur. Dr. Adams says that “it will take a bullet in the chest to stop me, but my opponents: liberal hippy, Marxists have no guns to shoot me with.”