The placement of a UNC professor on administrative leave — as the university investigates allegations regarding his advocacy for politically-motivated violence — led to a rally of support on campus Wednesday afternoon at South Building.
Dozens of campus community members, locals and visiting supporters gathered outside UNC’s administrative building to criticize university leaders for suspending Dwayne Dixon, a professor who teaches Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, earlier this week following a Fox News report about his affiliation with the group Redneck Revolt. The Daily Tar Heel published its own piece about Dixon’s leave from the university and a pair of petitions in support of Dixon’s freedom of speech surfaced in addition to the rally.
The conservative-leaning Fox News detailed Dixon’s connections to the self-described anti-racist, pro-worker and pro-community defense group, including linking to a blog post on the organization’s website that has since been deleted. The story was published after a spokesperson for Turning Point USA highlighted pamphlets on Georgetown University’s campus alluding to Charlie Kirk’s assassination and their connections to gun clubs associated with Redneck Revolt — which says on its website the organization disbanded as of 2019. Turning Point USA, a nonprofit founded by Kirk to mobilize and spread conservative values on college campuses, also has Dixon listed on its Professor Watchlist website and highlighted his rhetoric of meeting “danger coming from far-right action” with violence to defend communities under attack.
In a statement by Vice Chancellor of Communications and Marketing Dean Stoyer, UNC said placing Dixon on leave allows the university to investigate these allegations “in a manner that protects the integrity of its assessment” and condemns violence “of any kind within the UNC community.” Citing the Board of Trustees’ policies and regulations for governing academic tenure, Stoyer said potential disciplinary action could be up to and including termination of Dixon’s employment depending on the investigation’s results. The board policies specify a fixed-term or tenured faculty member can be suspended, demoted or discharged for misconduct if their actions are “sufficiently related to a faculty member’s academic responsibilities as to disqualify the individual from effective performance of university duties, or sufficiently serious as to adversely reflect on the individual’s honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness to be a faculty member.”
Organizers and attendees of Wednesday’s rally, however, painted the university’s decision as impinging Dixon’s freedom of speech without proof of any acts of violence and accused the administration of capitulating to online conservative vitriol. Supporters of Dixon held up signs in favor of the professor’s reinstatement and speakers questioned the timing of the administrative leave since his Redneck Revolt affiliation appeared to be several years ago. One petition had received hundreds of signatures by the rally, with a trio of speakers reading comments left on it that described Dixon’s effectiveness in the classroom and calling him a favorite instructor.
“I don’t want to live in a world where this is normal,” the three supporters shouted in unison to punctuate their speech. “We cannot let this be normal.”
Rallygoers supporting UNC Professor Dwayne Dixon and asking university administration for his leave to end participate in a chant. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
Attendees of Wednesday’s rally create signs for the event on Polk Place outside of South Building. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
The state and UNC chapters of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) shared a statement calling the move to put Dixon on administrative leave an “egregious violation” of his First Amendment rights to free speech, Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process and his academic freedom. President of the UNC chapter and Associate Professor of Communications Michael Palm read part of it to the crowd Wednesday afternoon and shared faculty concerns of one of their peers potentially being fired from “an unsubstantiated rumor” about political violence.
“With their cowardly response, UNC’s administrators have not only violated Professor Dixon’s basic rights,” said Palm “They have also infringed on students’ right to an education by taking a professor out of their classroom during the middle of a semester. This unexplained and unjustified decision has intensified an existing campus atmosphere of fear and censorship, further eroding students’ and faculty’s trust in UNC’s administration.”
UNC AAUP Chapter President Michael Palm speaks to the gathered crowd. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
While there is no evidence of recent run-ins with the law or violent acts, Dixon has previously faced a pair of charges stemming from his activism. WRAL reports in 2017, Durham Police charged him with two misdemeanor counts of having a weapon at a public rally and going armed to the terror of people after the Durham resident carried a semi-automatic weapon to an anti-KKK rally. Both were ultimately dismissed. The other came from an event on UNC campus: during the 2018 toppling of the Confederate statue Silent Sam, Dixon was there and got into a dustup that led to an assault charge which was ultimately dropped.
Gina Balamucki, a UNC alumna and Chapel Hill attorney who helped organize Wednesday’s rally, saw her circle of activist peers overlap with Dixon’s during that period of protest against the statue and university. She said she was “absolutely shocked” when she learned of the investigation into the professor – less because of right-wing attacks on Dixon, which she said have been common over the years, and more so because of UNC’s reaction. She pointed to university leadership’s history of both fearing far-right outrage and suppressing free speech in both how it handled the Silent Sam controversy and this latest one.
But Balamucki added that she believes the current political climate, paired with the UNC System and flagship campus leadership’s conservative realignment, have drastically increased the urgency and fear of those around the community.
“Back then,” she said of Silent Sam protests, “people were scared because of their safety – they were worried about neo-Confederates getting them, shooting them…it was a reasonable concern. Now, people are afraid of their university. They’re afraid admin will come after them, suspend them, take away their visas, and get them deported. I see that folks are far more afraid because the university has been exerting so much more repressive force against them.
“It’s really concerning,” Balamucki concluded, “to see these free speech rights eroded. It feels like we’re watching a film about an authoritarian state… [but] it is happening here, it’s happening to us, it’s happening now.”
The full statement from Stoyer regarding UNC’s investigation of Dixon reads as:
“The University of North Carolina has informed Dr. Dwayne Dixon, professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, that he has been placed on administrative leave, effectively immediately, following recent reports and expressions of concern regarding alleged advocacy of politically motivated violence. Placing Dr. Dixon on leave will allow the University to investigate these allegations in a manner that protects the integrity of its assessment.
“Depending upon the nature and circumstances of this activity, this conduct could be grounds for disciplinary action up to and including potential termination of employment according to the standards set forth in the Trustee Policies and Regulations Governing Academic Tenure in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and pursuant to UNC practice.
“At this time the total length of the administrative leave has not been determined, as it will depend on the time needed to thoroughly assess the allegations and investigate if needed.
“The University continues to reaffirm its commitment to rigorous debate, respectful engagement, and open dialogue in support of free speech. There is no place for or tolerance of inciting or extending sympathy toward violence of any kind within the UNC community.”
Featured image by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.
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