Overview

• FAU placed finance professor Rebel Cole, art history professor Karen Leader, and English professor Kate Polak on paid administrative leave while it investigates their social-media activity tied to Charlie Kirk’s killing.
• President Adam Hasner previously announced a leave for a tenured faculty member over repeated online comments regarding the assassination, and the school reiterated it would not discuss personnel matters.
• Leader, speaking publicly for the first time, said she was doxxed and received death threats, and she described her posts as largely reposts criticizing Kirk’s record rather than comments on his death.
• Cole wrote on X that the university violated his First Amendment rights, said he was banned from campus, and launched a GiveSendGo fundraiser after an exchange in which he told an anonymous user, “We are going to hunt you down and identify you.”
• Polak told FAU’s student newspaper she was placed on paid leave after interactions on Threads, and lawmakers including Sens. James Lankford and Chris Coons have weighed in as the investigations continue with no disciplinary outcomes announced.