The law-school administrator at Stanford University who confronted a Trump-appointed judge in March is leaving campus — this time, for good.
Tirien A. Steinbach, associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion, resigned on Thursday morning. Jenny S. Martinez, dean of Stanford Law School, announced the news in an email.
Her departure caps months of controversy after Steinbach intervened in a student protest against a conservative judge who visited the school in the spring. The furor ignited a firestorm of conservative backlash and prompted criticism from other Stanford administrators.
Stuart Kyle Duncan, a judge appointed by former President Donald J. Trump to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, was invited to campus in early March by the school’s chapter of the Federalist Society, a conservative and libertarian club.
A group of Stanford students disrupted his speech, calling his judicial record anti-LGBTQ and condemning his support for banning same-sex marriage and for restricting transgender people from using their preferred bathrooms.
Steinbach stepped in. She tried to defuse the situation, but also questioned why Duncan had been invited to speak.
She recognizes that the impact of her statements was not as she hoped or intended.
“Is it worth the pain that this causes and the division that this causes? Do you have something so incredibly important to say about Twitter and guns and Covid that that is worth this impact on the division of these people, who have sat next to each other for years, who are going through what is the battle of law school together?” she asked the judge, per a video of the event.
Martinez and Marc Tessier-Lavigne, the Stanford president who has since announced plans to resign following allegations of research misconduct, apologized to Duncan in a joint letter. What happened was inconsistent with the school’s free-speech policies, they wrote. By March 22 Steinbach was on leave, Martinez said in a memo .
In her Thursday email, Martinez said that although Steinbach had intended to de-escalate the tense situation, “she recognizes that the impact of her statements was not as she hoped or intended.”
“Both Dean Steinbach and Stanford recognize ways they could have done better in addressing the very challenging situation, including preparing for protests, ensuring university protocols are understood, and helping administrators navigate tensions when they arise,” Martinez wrote.
A representative for Steinbach told The Chronicle she declined to comment beyond Martinez’s email, but she “looks forward to continuing her work in support of diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as academic freedom and freedom of expression.”
