A professor at the University of Kansas is on leave after a video of his classroom comments from earlier this year went viral on social media.
The controversial account LibsofTikTok posted a video of the unnamed professor criticizing men who refuse to vote for a female candidate “because they don’t think females are smart enough to be president.”
The professor then added, “We can line all those guys up and shoot them. They clearly don’t understand the way the world works.”
According to the video, the professor immediately realized his error. “Scratch that from the recording,” he said on the posted video. “I don’t want the deans hearing that.”
The original post didn’t name the professor, but the student newspaper and First Amendment advocacy groups identified him as Phillip Lowcock, a health sport and exercise science lecturer.
After the video went viral, users on X and state officials, including U.S. senator Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, called on the university to fire Lowcock. Marshall wrote on social media that “this guy shouldn’t be within 100 yards of a university.”
University of Kansas officials said in a statement posted on social media that they are aware of the video and are investigating.
“The instructor offers his sincerest apologies and deeply regrets the situation,” the statement said. “His intent was to emphasize his advocacy for women’s rights and equality, and he recognizes he did a very poor job of doing so.”
Graham Piro, faculty legal defense fund fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, called on Kansas to reinstate Lowcock.
“The viral video shows an instructor making an off-handed joke—not communicating a serious intent to commit unlawful violence,” Piro said in a statement. “That’s protected speech, and people advocating that the instructor be punished for his expression are advocating for the erosion of the First Amendment.”
