URBANA – A letter from the University of Illinois says controversial Professor Kenneth Howell could be back in the classroom this fall, pending a review by a faculty senate committee.

But Howell said that's not what he's been told.

Howell is listed as an adjunct professor at the UI campus. He has taught a course on Catholicism since 2001, but said he lost his job last spring after an anonymous student complained about an e-mail he wrote about homosexuality being considered unnatural in his faith.

Howell said Tuesday that he has "no expectations" of teaching this fall, and that the title of adjunct professor is meaningless in his case.

"Technically, I still have my title, but what is the title without the work?" he asked, adding, "I have no expectations of being rehired."

Howell was also director of the Institute of Catholic Thought, part of St. John's Catholic Newman Center on campus and the Catholic Diocese of Peoria. His salary was paid through that office, where he also lost his job.

But the UI held out the chance of rapprochement in a recent letter to Howell's lawyers.

In a letter dated July 15, UI counsel Steven Veazie wrote to a group defending Howell's interests, the Alliance Defense Fund, that the scholar has not been "fired."

"He held, and continues to hold, the appointment of adjunct professor," Veazie wrote.

"Second, his teaching assignment for this coming fall is as yet been undetermined pending a review of this matter by the Faculty Senate's Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure."

The UI attorney told the defense fund that legal action is "unwarranted" at this time, and that the UI respects Howell's First Amendment rights.

The fund has said it could sue the UI.

"A university cannot censor professors' speech – including classroom speech related to the topic of the class – merely because certain ideas 'offend' an anonymous student," Alliance Defense Fund senior counsel David French said.

"To fire a professor for teaching the actual subject matter of his course is outrageous. It's ridiculous that a school would fire a professor without even giving him a chance to defend himself when he simply taught Catholic beliefs in a class about Catholic beliefs."

Adjunct professors are at-will employees. In a July 9 story, in which News-Gazette reporter Jodi Heckel first reported Howell's dismissal, Urbana campus spokeswoman Robin Kaler said adjunct lecturers are hired on a semester-by-semester basis. They have no tenure protection.

At that time, the UI did not indicate that Howell's faculty status was unchanged.

On July 12, interim Chancellor Robert Easter asked the Urbana-Champaign Senate's Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure to review Howell's case.

Also on July 12, Easter said the decision not to reappoint Howell was made by the Department of Religion, in consultation with the School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

In a statement issued last week, Monsignor Gregory Ketcham, director and head chaplain at the Newman Center, said Howell was employed primarily to "teach Catholic courses on campus for university credit, and we will seek to lobby for him to continue to do that and for the Catholic cause on campus."

Officials from the Peoria Diocese were scheduled to meet Tuesday with university officials to discuss Howell's case.

A statement Friday from Patricia Gibson, chancellor of the diocese and an attorney, said that "Howell was informed at the end of the spring semester that he would no longer be allowed to teach in the Department of Religion."

She said the diocese "has been seeking contact with the University of Illinois since the time we were informed of the decision to terminate Professor Howell. Only last week did the university contact the diocese to arrange a meeting. The university has given us every assurance that they intend to continue to offer Catholic courses in the Department of Religion. They have also indicated that they are open to a discussion concerning who will teach these courses in the future."

The statement also said UI President Michael Hogan had "reiterated that academic freedom is at the core of their teaching and he is willing to have a review of this action so that all the details related to this situation can be investigated."

"The Diocese of Peoria is committed to pursuing this matter and looks forward to cooperation from the University of Illinois so that a just resolution can be obtained," the statement said.