Colleague and AAUP president: ‘fabricated controversy cooked up by some right-wing Republicans’
The Rutgers University English professor who wrote “Let’s hope today’s events inspire others” regarding the Donald Trump assassination attempt will be back teaching this fall.
Rutgers had put Tracy Budd “under review” following her social media comments (which also included “They shot his wig. Sad”), but according to NJ.com, university spokeswoman Megan Schumann said Budd is slated to return to the classroom.
Schumann did not offer further details citing “confidential personnel matters.”
GOP gubernatorial candidate Ed Durr had wanted Budd terminated for the remarks, saying they were “hateful and dangerous,” and that “New Jersey does not need people like this teaching our children.”
Budd’s Rutgers colleague Todd Wolfson, the new president of the American Association of University Professors, called the whole situation a “fabricated controversy cooked up by some right-wing Republicans.”
Wolfson, who recently referred to GOP vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance as a “fascist,” added the same Republicans “would never say anything about the stomach-turning things Donald Trump or J.D. Vance tweet all the time — including calling our members, who do the teaching and research at Rutgers, ‘the enemy.’”
Hi @RutgersU! This your professor? pic.twitter.com/8MkzjAJ56n
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 23, 2024
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s Zachary Greenberg said it would be a “poor precedent” if Budd was fired over her comments.
“In times of intense political discussion, public universities bound by the First Amendment must uphold their professors’ right to discuss public issues,” Greenberg said.
Budd, who according to her Linkedin account did her undergraduate and master’s work at Rutgers, has been teaching there since 2001. Her Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Dept. master’s thesis was titled “Homoglossia: Do Queers and Their Theorists Speak the Same Language?”
In a 2008 post from her (now-defunct) website, Budd described herself as a “socialist” and “far-leftist.”
MORE: Adjunct who said Trump ‘had it coming’ last weekend no longer employed
IMAGE: Albert H. Teich/Shutterstock.com
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