Liberty University continues to be a community is disarray following Jerry Falwell’s racially insensitive COVID mask tweet (please see this post for context). An adjunct professor resigned immediately after the tweet came to light and now the school Director of Diversity Retention, Quan McLaurin has resigned. I suspect Mr. Falwell made his job very difficult.
Here is the Twitter announcement:
Yesterday I tendered my letter of resignation. As of July 2, 2020, I will no longer serve as the Director of Diversity Retention at Liberty University.
— Brown Skin Boy (@Quan2994) June 3, 2020
On another front, a small student group –Liberty Students for Change– is calling for Falwell to be fired.
In September we called for more accountability in the Falwell administration.
After Falwell’s racist tweets & unapologetic, divisive behavior, we are calling for him to step down. It is time to #FireFalwell pic.twitter.com/g9pTcGrcst— Liberty Students For Change (@lu4change) June 4, 2020
That group is small; a much larger group is touting a petition on Change.org. This petition –now with over 32,000 signers– specifically targets the racist tweet and calls on Falwell to change or resign. If this doesn’t happen, the signers pledge not to recommend the school. Several key athletes are signers which could hurt Liberty’s recruiting for Division 1 sports programs. The petition can be read and signed here.
More on LU:
Liberty Student Sickened by Jerry Falwell’s Blackface/KKK Mask
Jerry, Jr. really stepped in it this time. Good. Liberty’s students deserve better than to be led by him. I hope the resignation of a professor and an official have a positive effect, and I wish the student protesters well. Falwell needs to issue an apology, or to find a different job.
It says a lot about Falwell’s priorities when perhaps the most effective tactic to use against him would be for all the top athletes to transfer to other schools and top prospects to reconsider their acceptance. (It probably says a lot about the American college system in general, too, but that’s a completely different debate.)
Interesting thought … I suspect you are pretty much on the money.
I wonder if Jerry Falwell, Jr. is going to hide in his mansion and put up extra fencing just like the Orange Dear Leader?
Only if he’s heavily invested in the fence-building company.
I wonder what “official” information (if any) is being sent to the students, staff, faculty regarding this issue.
It would be interesting to see if the student group spurs the faculty to issue a statement demanding Falwell apologize or otherwise make amends.
They can’t. He will fire any who participate. Attitude is there’s always someone else who wants the job. When I was an adjunct there most adjuncts didn’t get as much work as they wanted. Full time a little harder I think. Law school is only part with tenure
They can. They just need the will to do so.
While Falwell can fire (or not renew a contract for) individual faculty, he can’t fire a significant percentage of them and expect to stay open.
Ordinarily I would agree but I don’t think Falwell thinks that way. Perhaps I’m wrong as obviously it’s my opinion
Being a college student these days seems to be even tougher than the early to mid 70s. But then us geology nerds weren’t very much into the political goings on. But in the days of Covid and increasing anti-neoconservativism one has to walk a fine line, either at the school of your choice or online, which I would think might lose some of the dynamism that a professor has to offer, and that of your classmates around you. Bad enough that the figurehead of your school is being an ass.