The Iowa Board of Regents is directing state universities to put several employees on administrative leave while they investigate social media comments made about the killing of Charlie Kirk.
Following more than two hours of closed session discussion, the regents unanimously voted Wednesday that all three universities shall place employees who have allegedly violated social media policy on two weeks of leave while they conduct investigations to determine if they should be fired.
Board member Robert Cramer said this will give universities time to determine which comments are protected by the First Amendment.
"So the purpose of this is to delve in and to see if these — any of these — cross the threshold to where they're so disruptive to the university that they still need discipline in an employment sense," he said.
The decision comes after pressure from some Republican lawmakers to respond to comments made by university employees about Kirk's assassination at a Utah college on Sept. 10.
State Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, and state Sen. Lynn Evans, R-Aurelia, sent a letter to the board this week calling for the immediate termination of any university employees who "celebrated" Kirk's death.
"College campuses were once the epicenter of civil debate and respectful discourse, the very pillar of Charlie Kirk’s ethos. Now, we see through these social media posts, just how far higher education has strayed from its original mission, and how desperately we need to course correct," they wrote.
Iowa's 2nd District Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson echoed this sentiment during a call with reporters Tuesday.
“I think anyone who celebrated a death like this should face consequences. There’s a pretty clear, I think, value system that we should hold our staff at our universities who are educating our young people to," she said.
At Wednesday's meeting, Board of Regents member Christine Hensley said the investigation is the best way to move forward to determine the next move.
"I think that's something that really needs to occur at this particular point and really has prevented us from moving forward with anything more specific than what is being presented today," she said.
The move comes as at least a dozen educators nationwide have faced discipline following comments made about Kirk’s assassination, including an Oskaloosa teacher, who is facing potential termination following a post that called Kirk a Nazi.
IPR reporter James Kelley contributed reporting to this story.
