Professor Laura Mullen, Kenan Chair of the Humanities, English & Creative Writing at Wake Forest, took to X (Twitter) to write, “So it’s kind of a Duh but if you turn me out of my house plow my olive groves under and confine what’s left of my family to the small impoverished state you run as an open air prison I could be tempted to shoot up your dance party yeah even knowing you will scorch the earth.”
Mullen said the tweet was “raw, direct, [and] poetic, in that it involved imagery.”
The tweet received over 25,000 views and sparked outrage within and beyond the Wake community. Mullen received two angry letters calling for her to be fired directly from parents but was aware of many more that had made their way to upper administration.
Although the University stood by Mullen’s comments as an expression of free speech and did not relieve her from her position, Mullen is deeply unhappy with the way she was treated by the administration.
Mullen told The Report that “[the University statement] is like if you watch animal films and you isolate one gazelle, that’s the one that gets eaten. They kind of threw me to the wolves.”
After a week of backlash from those in the Wake community and online, she took down the tweet.
“I took the tweet down [because] the administration had said that my tweet may be making things harder on the Muslim population,” said Mullen.
Despite all the backlash, some students sent Mullen emails offering support: notably, one student left an anonymous handwritten note at her office. Mullen said that a mother of a Muslim student told her that “we will give you any support you need.”
“I don’t have any students coming to me and saying, hey, you increased my fear and anxiety.” said Mullen.
Junior Andrew Orfaly, Hillel’s Religion and Education Chair, stated in response to Mullen’s comments that “as a result of all of the hatred outside of Israel and Gaza, my parents sat my siblings and I down and told us to tuck our Star of David and Mezuzah chains into our shirts.”
“I cannot help but fear for my life at school, an alleged ‘safe space,’” said Orfaly.
Samantha Perrotta, Chief of Staff in the Office of the Provost, said that “while we are not aware of any threats to physical safety on campus, we are aware that some students, particularly Jewish and Muslim students, are feeling that their psychological safety has been threatened.”
Update as of 11/16/23: Prof. Laura Mullen has since resigned from WFU for personal reasons.
Staying true to form, the offender is now offended and is now playing the victim. How typical and boring. The bottom line is that Ms. Mullen’s rhetoric is both abhorrent and offensive to a large number of students and families in the Wake Forest community. There is a level of professionalism and decorum that both an adult and a professor should uphold in a public forum and Laura Mullen failed miserably at both. Furthermore, her statement does not align whatsoever with the university’s Pro Humanitate philosophy. It is very upsetting that Ms. Mullen’s reason for taking down the post was that her tweet “may be making things harder on the Muslim population” rather than recognizing that the tweet was inappropriate and hurtful to so many members of the Wake community, even after it was explicitly brought to her attention. She also mentioned that a mother of a Muslim student stated that “we will give you any support you need”. Why would she state this? Support for what, offending people with hate speech? I think Laura Mullen should have concentrated less on tweets that are “raw, direct, and poetic” and should learn two new words; I’m sorry. I am still hopeful that Wake Forest will do better next time and live by their motto.
Don’t forget to link to peoples accounts when they do this kind of stuff 😉
Otherwise, good reporting!