A Professor Is Placed on Leave After an Internet Furor and Threats. What Happens to the Students?

Mark Makela for The Chronicle

Many of the students who take George Ciccariello-Maher’s classes don’t care what he posts on social media, though many people on the internet do. Those outsiders are so passionate that they have threatened to attack the associate professor of politics at Drexel University over his comments about race and the mass shooting in Las Vegas.

The specter of possible violence fueled the university’s decision to place Mr. Ciccariello-Maher on administrative leave. And that is what the students do care about.

“It feels like a breach of our academic rights because not only do we want the class, we have paid for the class and feel as though learning is taking on challenging concepts,” said Dakota Peterson, a senior.

It’s become increasingly common for professors to face threats over their remarks on social media, and the Drexel political theorist is no stranger to controversy. It’s also common for administrators to face accusations of trying to censor an outspoken professor, like the ones levied at the university in Mr. Ciccariello-Maher’s case.

Less common, though, is an acknowledgment of the students whose lives are disrupted by the sudden disappearance of their professor. What happens to them when the instructor is placed on leave?

Mr. Ciccariello-Maher had two classes this semester and about 40 students. This month, he posted an argument on Twitter in which he stated that the mass shooting in Las Vegas, which left 59 people dead and hundreds of others injured, was the product of a system that favors white men.

“It’s the white supremacist patriarchy, stupid,” he tweeted. Later, in a column for The Washington Post, he wrote that his subsequent tweets had diagnosed “a sense of double entitlement — as white people and as men — that, when frustrated, can occasionally lead to violent consequences.”

The threats and hate mail for those remarks quickly followed after the tweets were featured on the conservative news site The Daily Caller. Mr. Ciccariello-Maher has captured the internet’s ire in the past, but the university’s response was different this time. While Drexel condemned his earlier remarks, this time administrators placed him on leave for this month, calling it the best course of action for the university and the professor, given the threats.

“The fact that a course on race and politics would be canceled in response to white-supremacist threats is astounding,” Mr. Ciccariello-Maher wrote in an email to The Chronicle.

The university’s decision has been questioned by the American Association of University Professors, a watchdog group that noted its concern over Mr. Ciccariello-Maher’s academic freedom and tenure status in a letter to the university on Thursday,

Niki Gianakaris, a university spokeswoman, said Drexel recognizes and encourages its faculty members’ rights to academic freedom. “However, Professor Ciccariello-Maher’s comments have led to a growing number of threats against both him and the campus, and we made a necessary step to ensure the safety of the Drexel community,” she wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “The university is working on solidifying arrangements for Professor Ciccariello-Maher’s classes.”

In an email obtained by The Chronicle, Drexel’s provost, M. Brian Blake, told the students that he had sent police officers to the professor’s home and upped the number of security personnel on campus. Mr. Blake also apologized to the students for the inconvenience, and promised to “make arrangements” for the class.

He also challenged the notion that the decision was an attempt to mute Mr. Ciccariello-Maher.

“As provost, I am perhaps the most present advocate for academic freedom,” he wrote. “In my role, I defend George’s academic freedom on a daily basis. As such, our latest action had absolutely nothing to do with the content of his extramural speech.”

Whatever the reason for placing Mr. Ciccariello-Maher on leave, some of his students viewed the decision as an unfair to their academic rights. Mr. Peterson, who is studying political science, had one course with Mr. Ciccariello-Maher.

He and the class talked about the Las Vegas shooting, immigration, whiteness, and the origins of the concept of race. Students interviewed by The Chronicle said that they know their professor maintains a fiery presence online. They also see a distinction between his online behavior and his abilities as an educator.

“He was very professional in the way that he teaches,” said Eunice Maya Kamami, a junior. “He definitely lets students take up most of the classroom space.”

Joshua Anker, a junior, said he was thrilled for the chance to take Mr. Ciccariello-Maher’s class and described him as the best professor in the politics department. He added that he understands how and why some people would be upset over his professor’s remarks. But he said they’re not approaching the material academically.

And it’s likely that the students will have to figure out what to do next. In his email, Mr. Blake said it’s possible that a replacement professor could pick up Ciccariello-Maher’s classes, or perhaps the students could take a different course. The university could create a shortened courses, he wrote in the email to students.

The students were upset by the administration’s response and criticized the decision to put the professor on leave, while imploring the university to end it. They plan to stage a sit-in in their classroom, Mr. Peterson said. They’ll be in the space the university declared unsafe. They also plan to start a social-media campaign. They’re also working on a letter to John Fry, the university’s president. Mr. Peterson is considering a sit-in of the president’s office. He is unsure how his efforts will go over, but he is optimistic.

“I think we can show the university these issues matter,” he said. “And they’re not going to go uncontested.”

Chris Quintana is a breaking-news reporter. Follow him on Twitter @cquintanadc or email him at chris.quintana@chronicle.com.