Professor Bret Weinstein, a leftist, refused to participate in the evacuation of white people (only) from the campus of Evergreen State College and sued the college for the hostile work environment he alleged that he and his wife subsequently suffered. Without admitting that charge, the state-supported institution that already faces a $2.1 million deficit and layoffs, is going to cough up a cool half million bucks to avoid the expense, spectacle, and risk of a jury trial.

To be sure, this is only a fraction of the $3.8 million demanded in the lawsuit. But it is a nice chunk of change, and demonstrates that keeping this out of court was a priority for the administration.

Jennifer Kabbany of The College Fix writes:

Evergreen State College has settled a tort claim against it from embattled Professor Bret Weinstein and his wife, Professor Heather Heying, for $500,000, according to an email sent to faculty Friday evening.

“They have resigned from their faculty positions at Evergreen, effective today. The college will pay them a total of $450,000 and contribute an additional $50,000 toward their attorney fees,” according to the email, sent by John Carmichael, chief of staff and secretary to the board of trustees.

“In making this agreement, the college admits no liability, and rejects the allegations made in the tort claim,” Carmichael wrote.

It isn’t going to be easy to come up with all that scratch. Most of Evergreen’s controllable expenses are related to personnel.  The budget deficit already is in part due to the consequences of the cave-in to student radicals. Now, there are more members of the college community that are going to suffer because of coddling the hard left.