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Professors in the Political Cross Hairs

For months Heather Heying and her husband, Bret Weinstein, both professors at Evergreen State College, worried it was spiraling out of control. When a producer of Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News came calling, they were “horrified” by the decision they faced. But Mr. Weinstein (right) ended up appearing on the show with Mr. Carlson (left).
For months Heather Heying and her husband, Bret Weinstein, both professors at Evergreen State College, worried it was spiraling out of control. When a producer of Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News came calling, they were “horrified” by the decision they faced. But Mr. Weinstein (right) ended up appearing on the show with Mr. Carlson (left).

In an era of deeply partisan media and social-media sharing, professors are being watched more closely than ever before — and brought to account for things they said and things they did not say.

A network of media outlets collects professors’ Facebook posts, opinion essays, and classroom comments, scouring for missteps or provocative phrasings, and amplifies them until they have become national news. In many cases, the result is opprobrium from outsiders and alumni, a faculty member’s inbox filled with vituperation, or even threats of violence against an individual or a campus.

Here is a collection of Chronicle articles documenting the impact of web-driven political outrage on the lives of professors.

Kathleen McElroy, Class of 1981, seen here during a June ceremony announcing her as Texas A&M’s Department of Communication and Journalism’s Director of Journalism, turned down the university position earlier this week. (Meredith Seaver, The Bryan-College Station Eagle)
Strained negotiations
After a Botched Hiring at Texas A&M, a Prominent Journalist Has Chosen to Stay Where She Is
By Erin Gretzinger, Megan Zahneis
The university’s deal with Kathleen McElroy fell through after critics complained about her DEI work.
Demonstrators stand in silent protest at the Carolina Inn on UNC Chapel Hill's campus during a Board of Trustees meeting on the status of tenure for Nikole Hannah-Jones on Wednesday, June 30, 2021 in Chapel Hill, NC.
The Nikole Hannah-Jones Saga
How Chapel Hill Bungled a Star Hire
By Jack Stripling
In the Nikole Hannah-Jones tenure case, leaders settled for less and wound up with nothing.
Kelly Stone’s course on sexuality at Texas State was canceled in 2019, a semester after she and other students say one student continuously disrupted the class. Stone says the school’s director at the time told her, "I know you are being abused, and you just have to take it."
News
When the Culture War Comes to Class
By Michael Vasquez
How a Texas State University course on sexuality became a battleground in America’s partisan divide.
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, a conservative advocacy group, speaking at Indiana U. of Pennsylvania in April. He said a professor’s attempt to remove a disruptive student from her class exemplified how "free speech is under attack in college campuses."
News
How a Student Got Kicked Out of Class — and Became a Conservative Hero
By Michael Vasquez
When Lake Ingle got in trouble with his professor, he waged a right-wing media campaign against her. She paid a fearful price as the target of the internet outrage machine.
Rebecca Martinez, an assistant professor at the U. of Missouri at Columbia, is putting together an "Academic Freedom Syllabus" to educate administrators on the online threats that their faculty members receive.
Academic Freedom
This Professor Wants to Teach Administrators Not to Cave In to Right-Wing Outrage
By Fernanda Zamudio-Suarez
Through her “Academic Freedom Syllabus,” Rebecca G. Martinez, an assistant professor at the University of Missouri at Columbia, hopes officials will be less likely to condemn instructors who are targets of digital anger.
Tommy J. Curry, a philosophy professor at Texas A&M, was deluged with threats and hate mail.
From the Archives
Who’s Left to Defend Tommy Curry?
By Steve Kolowich
A black philosopher at Texas A&M thought forcing a public discussion about race and violence was his job. Turns out people didn’t want to hear it.
curry promo
News
How a Challenge to Tommy Curry Set Off a Chain Reaction
By Steve Kolowich, Brian O’Leary
In an interactive table, see how news about his statements on racial violence coursed through partisan and nonpartisan media.
The conservative online publication Campus Reform "specializes in a small genre of journalism, but it’s an exciting one to be in," says the editor in chief, Sterling Beard (left, in front of its "wall of fame").
Faculty
Higher Education’s Internet Outrage Machine
By Peter Schmidt
Two online publications, Campus Reform and The College Fix, have found ways to make conservative anger at colleges go viral.
Sarah E. Bond, of the U. of Iowa, says her university has been supportive after she became a target of angry emails.
News
Professors’ Growing Risk: Harassment for Things They Never Really Said
By Peter Schmidt
Faculty members are facing not just online backlash but also threats of violence as a result of how conservative media characterize their views.
A U. of Iowa professor wrote an essay expressing dismay at "alt-right groups appropriating classical antiquities for nefarious reasons." It was a short trip to the front pages of the internet's conservative media sites.
From the Archives
Signal Boost: How Conservative Media Outlets Turn Faculty Viewpoints Into National News
By Chris Quintana, Brock Read
Three professors made provocative statements about race and politics. Then the outrage machine went to work.
George Ciccariello-Maher, of Drexel U., is one of several academics who’ve found less than unqualified support from their own colleges after drawing criticism online for controversial comments.
Academic Freedom
Under Fire, These Professors Were Criticized by Their Colleges
By Chris Quintana
This year has seen a rash of free-speech controversies involving faculty members. In many cases, their college or university criticized them. The Chronicle has been tracking such incidents. Here’s another example.
Evergreen State College, in Olympia, Wash., was evacuated earlier this month after the campus received an anonymous threat. Last week, a similar scenario played out at Trinity College, in Connecticut. With the level of threatened violence on the increase, colleges face some unique challenges in assessing when their campus is in danger, and how to respond.
Campus Safety
What Colleges Can Do When the Internet Outrage Machine Comes to Campus
By Beth McMurtrie
Trinity College, in Connecticut, had no warning that it would suddenly become a focus for threats. But it had a plan for quickly convening campus officials to assess and respond to the situation.
Tressie McMillan Cottom, a sociologist at Virginia Commonwealth U., argues that scholars should be looking out for their colleagues across academe when they come under fire for things they said.
News
‘If There’s an Organized Outrage Machine, We Need an Organized Response’
By Chris Quintana
In a time when scholars’ comments can bring them under intense scrutiny, professors contemplate ways to actively support their colleagues.
Sarah Bond, an assistant professor of classics at the U. of Iowa, drew threats in response to an essay noting that Greek and Roman statues — originally painted in colors but now just white marbles — had been used to aid white-supremacist causes.
News
For One Scholar, an Online Stoning Tests the Limits of Public Scholarship
By Chris Quintana
Since writing an essay analyzing the history of ancient statues, and why they are now mostly white, a University of Iowa professor has received insults and threats.
Faculty
A Professor Reflects on Her Time in the Eye of a Social-Media Storm
By Chris Quintana
Areej Zufari says she gave a failing grade to a troublesome student; he told the media he was unfairly singled out for his Christianity. The professor talks about the digital pillorying that came next.