Charlie Kirk X posts from Carnegie Mellon professor draw backlash
A Carnegie Mellon University professor came under fire online for her comments posted to X about conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
- A Carnegie Mellon University professor’s social media posts have sparked controversy and backlash.
- University officials condemned the posts, stating they violated community standards against hateful language.
- Following the viral posts, faculty members were doxxed, leading to increased campus security.
In the wake of a Carnegie Mellon University professor’s comments on social media receiving viral attention, school faculty was doxxed, the university’s president said.
X posts from Uju Anya, an associate professor of second language acquisition at Carnegie Mellon University, resurfaced on Sept. 10 as another X user, @TheWuhanClan, shared a screenshot of a conversation from 2021 following the death of Rush Limbaugh, where Anya allegedly said, “Die first, white man,” in an exchange between the two of them, TribLIVE reported. Screenshots allegedly from Anya’s account, which has since been deactivated, were also shared widely, showing posts that spoke derogatorily about conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
On Sept. 14, Carnegie Mellon University sent three separate statements written to the school community addressing Anya’s social media posts, noting that faculty members had been doxxed and that there was increased security on campus. At least one class was moved online, according to The Tartan, Carnegie Mellon’s student newspaper. The Department of Language, Culture and Applied Linguistics was also pausing its conversation group meetings.
USA TODAY reached out to Anya for comment but did not receive a response, with an automatic response from her university email saying she was away on sabbatical and that her inbox was not regularly being checked.
Here’s what to know.
Carnegie Mellon condemns professor’s X posts
Carnegie Mellon officials said school policy prohibited the school from sharing personnel information about Anya, but that they were “taking swift action in accordance with their processes.” They noted that Anya is on voluntary professional leave through summer of 2027 and is not teaching classes at the school this year.
The three university statements — written by CMU President Farnam Jahanian and Provost James Garrett Jr.; Cassidy Sugimoto, dean of Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences; and Adam van Compernolle, interim head of CMU’s department of languages, cultures and applied linguistics — all raised concerns about the content of Anya’s social media posts.
In their joint statement, Jahanian and Garrett said members of the languages department had been doxxed and had received an “influx of threatening messages that leave them feeling distressed and unsafe,” though they noted that university police had not identified any credible threats.
Jahanian and Garrett said that while the school encourages free speech, they “strongly reject language that is hateful and disparages or calls for the harm of others,” adding that Anya’s posts used expletives, racial slurs and derogatory language that “demeaned, dehumanized and intimidated” in a way that violated the university’s community standards.
All three statements referenced the department’s policy on community responsibilities, with Jahanian and Garrett noting that the policy prohibits harassment, discrimination and disrespect and that it applies to both on-campus and personal off-campus communication “where there is a reasonable perception or expectation that we are acting as representatives of LCAL, Dietrich College, and/or Carnegie Mellon University.”
Carnegie Mellon professor’s X posts spark uproar
Anya’s social media posts gained attention late last week, when posts about Kirk sparked backlash on X and user @TheWuhanClan shared screenshots of a five-year-old exchange.
Screenshots allegedly taken from Anya’s account were shared by Libs of TikTok, an X account run by far-right influencer Chaya Raichik. Billionaire Elon Musk, who owns X through his company SpaceXAI, also shared a post from user @TheWuhanClan referencing Anya, saying, “This is a real professor at Carnegie Mellon University …”
Carnegie Mellon professor’s social media posts drew backlash in 2022
This wasn’t the first time Anya faced backlash for the content of her social media. In Sept. 2022, a post to her X account about Queen Elizabeth drew backlash.
In a screenshot allegedly taken from Anya’s account, she wrote, “I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating.”
Carnegie Mellon University officials responded on Facebook, saying the school didn’t condone the “offensive and objectionable message” posted to Anya’s personal account.
“Free expression is core to the mission of higher education, however, the views she shared absolutely do not represent the values of the institution, nor the standard of discourse we seek to foster,” officials said.
Students created an open letter supporting Anya that was published in The Tartan, while another open letter was penned by faculty at Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, Stony Brook University, Northwestern University and University of South Florida. Authors called into question the university’s response toward Anya when Jahanian expressed strong support for the first amendment rights of Richard Grenell, a CMU-affiliated senior fellow and former Trump official who, authors said, published antisemitic and sinophobic conspiracy theories.
“We ask university officials at CMU to consider what harms are both elided from critical discourse and reproduced in the classroom when they choose to stand on the side of the oppressor,” authors said. “Universities must be intentional about how they respond to public discourse and critically evaluate who they are targeting and/or harming by their response or lack of response. We call on universities to stop being reactive when issues of structural oppression are called to their attention and take seriously its impacts on staff, faculty, students, and families.”
The letter received 4,119 signatures of support from staff, faculty and other independent individuals.
Finch Walker is the Pittsburgh Connect Reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Contact Walker at FWalker@usatodayco.com. Instagram: @finchwalker_. X: @_finchwalker.