Three days after Tamar Shirinian posted a Facebook comment about the death of conservative activist and Turning Point co-founder Charlie Kirk, the University of Tennessee initiated expedited termination proceedings and placed the anthropology professor on administrative leave with pay.

“As faculty members, even when we speak privately, our speech has a broader impact,” UT Knoxville Chancellor Donde Plowman wrote in a letter to Shirinian notifying her of her termination. “By celebrating violence and murder in your social media posts, you have violated the university’s expectations for the people teaching our students.”

The letter followed a barrage of messages to UT administrators, many of which came from a group of Kirk’s followers who had launched a concerted effort in the days followin

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