A South Carolina college has suspended a member of its faculty for posting offensive remarks about the assassination of Charlie Kirk in Utah this week.
In a statement emailed to the Daily Beast, Clemson University confirmed Saturday that “effective immediately, an employee has been suspended pending further investigation into social media posts.” The college added that “a full review is underway of the employee social media activity that has been brought to our attention in relation to the recent incident,” and that “each case is being evaluated individually and thoroughly to ensure appropriate action is taken.”
The college did not identify the member of staff.
The suspension comes as Clemson faces mounting public backlash after Melvin Earl Villaver Jr, an assistant professor of audio technology and global Black studies, reportedly shared a variety of online posts that ridiculed Kirk’s assassination.
“We understand the frustration, and we share the deep concern over the nature of these posts,” the college said. “However, we will continue to act within the bounds of the law and our University policies to ensure accountability and integrity.”
Two other faculty members are alleged to have been “spouting EGREGIOUS hate” about Kirk’s death, per an X post from Clemson College Republicans.
The naming of Clemson staff members is part of an ongoing and mounting drive by the late far-right activist’s followers to identify the Turning Point USA founder’s critics, and then pressure their employers to fire them. Their efforts have earned them the nickname “Nazi Karens.”
A website set up by contributors to that campaign, operating under the banner “Expose Charlie’s Murderers,” claims to already have amassed 30,000 names that it now plans to turn into “a searchable database… filterable by general location and job industry” as part of “the largest firing operation in history.”
Clemson’s initial inaction over its staff members’ online comments prompted backlash from GOP state lawmakers, among them Republican State Representatives Thomas Beach and April Cromer, and State Senator Wes Climer.
Cromer even went as far as to call for the college to lose its estimated $219 million annual public funding. “It’s crystal clear where Clemson’s leadership takes its playbook: straight from the left’s agenda,” Cromer posted earlier Saturday. “Clemson belongs to the people of SC, NOT to progressive elites. It’s time to hold them accountable. Shut it down.”
