University Provost Mark Byrnes spoke on Tuesday about last week’s firing of MTSU’s assistant dean of students and the Office of Student Care and Conduct.
MTSU received a high number of complaints on Sept. 10 after assistant dean, Laura Sosh-Lightsy, posted “callous” comments on social media following the assassination of conservative activist, podcaster and close ally of President Donald Trump, Charlie Kirk. MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee announced that the dean was fired that same night.
“Faculty are paid to deal in ideas,” Byrnes said. “We want faculty expressing their ideas, but they have to do so in a responsible manner.”
Matthew Hurtt, an MTSU alumnus, posted screenshots of the assistant dean’s comments within hours of her posting them.
“Ms. Sosh-Lightsy’s role and her hateful political views likely had a chilling effect for conservative students on campus,” Hurtt said to Sidelines. “I applaud President McPhee for acting swiftly.”
Sosh-Lightsy’s posts proceeded to go viral through Hurtt’s social media within hours.
“Viral is an overused term, but that sure is what it felt like,” Byrnes said. “In a matter of hours, it was certainly a statewide story, if not a national story.”
Sosh-Lightsy’s comments spread further when Sen. Marsha Blackburn replied to Hurtt’s post.
“This person should be ashamed of her post,” Blackburn said. “She should be removed from her position at @MTSU.”
A stream of calls and texts flowed into the provost’s phone that evening. Byrnes, who admitted he is not an X user, had to use his daughter’s account to view the social media backlash.
Social media was the source of most of the complaints, Byrnes said.
“This was unusual,” Byrnes said. “I mean, [social media] is not normally how we get complaints about things at the university.”
Once the complaints started to come in, the next step was to verify that the account actually belonged to Sosh-Lightsy. University officials used her LinkedIn, which was connected to her Facebook, to confirm that the account was Sosh-Lightsy’s.
Blackburn’s team never reached out to the provost’s office directly, but Byrnes was not sure if anyone from her team spoke with McPhee. Byrnes, like most, found out about how Blackburn felt on X.
Sidelines reached out to McPhee’s office to ask if Blackburn approached administration but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Faculty still have questions, Byrnes said. But answers will have to wait.
“We’ll have to wait and see how these other cases at other universities play out,” Byrnes said. “I would be surprised if there are not some lawsuits, particularly for those being terminated.”
He added that he does not know if Sosh-Lightsy is pursuing litigation. Sidelines reached out to Sosh-Lightsy following her termination but did not hear back.
There are currently no rules in the MTSU employee handbook or university policy that dictate online behavior, but Byrnes said administrators would look at implementing training into the onboarding process for new faculty.
He was not sure if any changes would be made to university policy.
“We certainly want to prepare our faculty as best we can for sort of what the expectations are and what the possible consequences are of violating those expectations,” Byrnes said.
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