UNC Chapel is immediately reinstating a professor suspended in response to a dubious link to celebrations of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
The university said in an email Friday morning that following a “threat assessment,” the university found there was no basis to conclude that Dwayne Dixon, a teaching associate professor in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, “poses a threat to university students, staff and faculty or has engaged in conduct that violates university policy.”
Dixon had received notification on Monday from Interim Provost James W. Dean Jr. that he was being placed on indefinite administrative leave with pay due to “recent reports and expressions of concerns regarding your alleged advocacy of politically motivated violence.”
The interim provost had also forbidden Dixon from communicating with current or former students and colleagues without prior approval from the university.
Dixon’s suspension followed a Fox News report over the previous weekend about his past association with John Brown Gun Clubs and the Silver Valley chapter of Redneck Revolt, both armed left-wing groups, in connection with flyers posted at Georgetown University that appeared to celebrate Kirk’s death. On the same day as publication of the Fox News report, Andrew Kolvet, spokesperson for Turning Point USA, the group founded by Kirk, demanded Dixon’s firing.
The flyers included the text, “Hey, fascist! Catch!” The same words were allegedly engraved in the unfired casing of one of the bullets used by Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old Utahn accused of killing Kirk. The Georgetown University flyer goes on to say: “The only political group that celebrates when Nazis die. Join the John Brown Club.”
The decision comes a day after the ACLU of North Carolina sent a letter to the university demanding Dixon’s reinstatement. The free speech organization issued an ultimatum that the university reinstate Dixon by 5 p.m. on Friday or face legal action.
“The university’s decision to place Professor Dixon on administrative leave merely because of his association with certain groups is a textbook violation of the First Amendment,” Staff Attorney Ivy Johnson wrote.
“There is nothing to suggest Professor Dixon was in any way involved with, or even aware of, the flyers distributed on Georgetown’s campus,” the letter said. “Indeed, Professor Dixon has not been affiliated with the John Brown Gun Club or Redneck Revolt since 2018.”
