DETROIT — Wayne State University suspended a professor with pay Monday for allegedly advocating in a social media post that people would be justified in murdering certain individuals with whom they disagree rather than "shouting down" them.
The professor, who wasn't identified in the university's news release, is in the English Department and was suspended immediately pending a review by law enforcement agencies, Wayne State University M. Roy Wilson wrote in a statement circulated to the campus community.
"The post stated that rather than 'shouting down' those with whom we disagree, one would be justified to commit murder to silence them," Wilson wrote. "We have on many occasions defended the right of free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but we feel this post far exceeds the bounds of reasonable or protected speech. It is, at best, morally reprehensible and, at worst, criminal."
The Detroit-based university referred the matter to "law enforcement agencies for further review and investigation," the president said.
Wayne State University Police Chief Tony Holt said his agency is looking into the post.
"We're still in the early stages of this investigation," Holt said. "We need to determine if this was an actual threat or just someone expressing an opinion. We respect free speech, but the question is whether this crossed the line from just someone's opinion into saying 'I want to do this.' That's yet to be determined, since we're very early in the process.
"The university is investigating what policies (the post) may have violated, whereas we're looking at whether a crime was committed," Holt said. "After we finish, we'll write up a report to present to (Wayne County) prosecutors for their consideration."
The university has no further comment besides Wilson's statement, university spokesman Darrell Dawsey wrote in an email.
Charles Parrish, past president of the Wayne State University chapter of the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers, said that he would be willing to defend the free speech rights of the professor.
"The problem is it seems like he is skating close to the edge with the situation," said Parrish, adding he was unaware which professor made the comments.
The university has had other speech controversies.
In June 2021, the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights organization complained that Wilson wrongly censored the student Senate's statement on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The WSU Student Senate approved a resolution on the armed clash in May 2021 when the Palestinian group Hamas fired rockets into Israel and the country's armed forces launched airstrikes against the Gaza Strip, killing more than 250 people, most of them Palestinians. A cease-fire was reached after 11 days of fighting.
Wilson blocked the dissemination of the statement through the university's email listserv, which reaches the school's faculty and students, in what spokesman Matt Lockwood said was an "inflammatory" statement that was not an official university position.
"While we support the right of our students to express views important to them, I regret their use of some needlessly inflammatory terminology," Wilson said in a June 3, 2021 statement. "We must treat each other with civility and respect. Some of their words did not do that."
The statement condemned all forms of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and violence against Israeli and Palestinian people, as well as the use of American taxpayer dollars to support Israel's policies regarding Palestinians. The student Senate condemned the Israeli government, saying "This violent ethnic cleansing has been happening since 1948 and continues to this very day."
"The suppression of students' free speech rights — even if some disagree with their political views — runs counter to the stated ethos of the university, which offers liberal arts education and purports to have an environment in which ideas are allowed to be rigorously debated," CAIR-Michigan Executive Director Dawud Walid said.
