Carnegie Mellon University, a private school in Pittsburgh, said on Monday that it intends to take “swift action” in response to controversial social-media posts by Uju Anya, an associate professor of second-language acquisition, about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the co-founder of the conservative student movement Turning Point USA.
The professor appears to have deleted her social-media account. She reportedly posted that Kirk was a “s**tbag, who should rot in piss” and referred to the “Kirkmas” around the one-year anniversary of Kirk’s assassination.
She also reportedly stated, “Die first, white man, then ask yourself why I’m dancing” in response to someone who asked why she only celebrates the deaths of white people. The social-media user was responding to her 2021 post stating that radio host Rush Limbaugh “finally did something positive in life by dropping dead.”
Carnegie Mellon posted a statement on its university site on Saturday, saying “we are deeply concerned by recent hostile and threatening social-media posts by Dr. Anya and are reviewing this matter closely” and that Anya is on “voluntary professional leave.”
On Monday, Farnam Jahanian, university president, and James Garrett, Jr., provost and chief academic officer, said Anya “repeatedly and prominently invoked her connection to Carnegie Mellon and implied support from university colleagues, blurring the line between personal expression and academic authority.”
“In her posts, she used expletives, racial slurs and derogatory language that demeaned, dehumanized and intimidated,” they said. They added that “while university policy prohibits us from sharing information about personnel matters, we are taking swift action in accordance with our processes.”
