Donald Downs, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, led the charge to successfully fend off speech codes in the 1990s that would have disproportionately targeted conservative ideas at the historically liberal Madison campus. Downs thinks UT is overreaching if it tries to fire Shirinian.
“Who is threatened by what this professor said?” Downs said. “I think what she said was deplorable, and I think there are too many academics that are running around with those kind of ideas that are detrimental. But she’s got due process protections, she has certain academic freedom protections and extramural speech, and those have to be respected, too, especially because of the consequences of not doing that.”