Last month, a University of South Alabama professor went viral for approaching a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) tabling event, accusing the students of being "fascist" and gleefully admitting to a previous encounter where he called students "dog shit grifters."
Following that encounter, Ethan Kaiser, the president of the university's TPUSA chapter, filed a formal complaint for harassment and targeted harassment against the professor, identified as Department of Mathematics and Statistics assistant professor Joshua Lioi, and was brought in for a meeting with a senior member of the staff, Dr. J. Harold Pardue, dean of the Graduate School and associate vice president for Academic Affairs and the interim dean of the School of Computing. In that meeting, Pardue questioned the public release of the video and its impact on university funding, citing the chair of Ways and Means at the higher education level.
In a recording of that meeting reviewed by 1819 News, Pardue agreed that Lioi's behavior was inappropriate, calling it "abhorrent." He, however, was unsure of, if not discouraging, the student's formal complaint.
"It felt like he was trying to talk me out of the claim," Kaiser told 1819 News in an interview. Beyond that, though, a portion of the meeting was met with disbelief and the belief that Kaiser was harming the university.
"On another note, to bring back to your team — it's conceivable, I don't know what the motivation of uploading this video was, but a possible outcome is that funding is going to be jeopardized — that is the university's. I don't know if your team thought about that," Pardue said
"I don't know if you noticed the chair of Ways and Means at our level, obviously saw the video and made some comment on the radio about 'this is going to show up on their budget.' I don't know to what degree posting this on social media or indirectly through Turning Point. It may very well have a negative impact on the university's funding, and I don't know if your team thought about that or understands we're in a red state, I've lived here my whole life," he added. "There could be a very serious consequence for the university for having posted — I'm not telling you it's right or wrong. I'm asking you to communicate this with your people."
1819 News asked Kaiser directly about his response to those comments.
"I just have to say that the only way it would affect university funding is if it's handled inappropriately. If the university shows that it's a strong advocate for student groups on campus and professional treatment or professional treatment to students by professors, in my opinion, there's no negative way it would affect funding. Again, I feel like it was kind of a statement to try and get me to maybe feel bad for doing what I was doing," Kaiser said.
When asked if he felt bad, Kaiser quickly and bluntly replied, "No, because I wasn't doing anything wrong."
In several portions of the audio recording, Pardue speaks on behalf of former Congressman and current University of South Alabama president Jo Bonner and Dr. Andrea "Andi" Kent, executive vice president and provost of the University.
"I'll tell you, Jo Bonner and [Andrea] Kent do not want an environment here where people feel like they're being hated on," Pardue stated in the recording.
"It's about the university maintaining professionalism and accountability because the way that this professor acted was, in my opinion, extremely unprofessional, and there's no accountability being shown by the university," Kaiser told 1819 News in a phone interview.
Following media coverage, the school issued a statement saying that Lioi, whom they did not name, had behaved in a way "inconsistent with our values," but neither the complaint nor the video prevented Lioi from returning to the Turning Point table the following week to continue his pattern of disruptive behavior.
SEE: 'Dog sh-t grifters': TPUSA student group harassed by University of South Alabama professor (Video)
RELATED: University of South Alabama spox: Anti-TPUSA profanity 'inconsistent with our values'
In a statement to 1819 News regarding questions related to the full audio recording and the claim that the university wasn't protecting conservative students, a school spokesman said, "As a public institution, the University must remain viewpoint neutral. As a result, we cannot censor speech solely because we dislike it. That does not mean, though, that the University endorses every opinion offered, and we would hope that public discourse remains civil. The University offers a variety of methods for students to register complaints if they feel they are being treated unfairly or in violation of University policy. If the University receives such complaints, it will proceed in accordance with the process set forth in the applicable policy."
The spokesman was unaware that after the formal complaint was lodged, the first video went viral, and the university released its first statement regarding his behavior, Lioi returned to the TPUSA table.
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