Rep. Richard Hudson, R-NC, said professors who withhold students' grades in a show of support for anti-Israel rioters should be "immediately" terminated.
The comment came after professors at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reportedly organized a protest where they would withhold the final grades of all students unless the university reinstates students they claim were suspended during an anti-Israel demonstration last week.
"UNC professors should be protecting students who are targets of antisemitism and violence," Hudson tweeted on X. "They should not be protecting the bigots and antisemites. Fire any faculty or staff participating in withholding grades immediately."
The UNC-Chapel Hill sent a letter cautioning professors and faculty members against withholding students’ final grades on Tuesday.
The academic anarchy comes after anti-Israel demonstrations sprang up on the campus last week. These agitators ripped down an American flag on the campus and replaced its patriotic red, white and blue with the Palestinian flag, flying the red, green and white high over the campus.
To restore order, university administrators took action and ordered police to clear the encampment. The students who participated in the unrest were forced to clear the area and some faced disciplinary action.
In a show of "solidarity" with the students, some professors at the university reportedly began organizing an effort to withhold students’ final grades from transcripts.
On Monday, several students got a message via the school portal that said: "In solidarity with these students, I [the unnamed author] (along with many other faculty, teaching assistants, fellows, and graders across campus) have decided to withhold my reporting of final grades to the Registrar’s Office," the Carolina Journal reported.
"On May 13, if the administration has not reinstated the suspended students, you will see a NR (for Not Reported) on your transcript," the message board read. "An NR does not change your GPA positively or negatively, and can remain on your transcript until the end of the following semester. I will keep a personal record of your grades so that, once the administration meets our demands, the grades you earned will be recorded."
On Tuesday, UNC-Chapel Hill Provost Chris Clemens and Graduate School Dean Beth Mayer-Davis sent a letter to deans and department chairs addressing the apparent protest.
"We are hearing concerns from students whose instructors have informed them they will withhold grades as part of a protest. These students depend on the timely submission of their grades for graduation, jobs, and athletic eligibility, and it is part of the required duties of all faculty and graduate TAs to submit grades by the registrar deadlines," Clemens and Mayer-Davis said in the joint statement.
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The university said the protesting professors could face "sanctions."
"Dear Deans and Department Chairs, we are asking you to please work with your faculty and graduate students to ensure that we follow exemplary practice in our work as educators," Clemens and Mayer-Davis wrote. "We strongly support the right of faculty and graduate students to express their opinions freely but there are better ways to do this than hurting our students and abrogating our contract with the people of North Carolina who support our university."
They continued: "We are counting on your leadership in this matter."
"The provost's office will support sanctions for any instructor who is found to have improperly withheld grades, but it is our hope we can resolve this matter amicably and without harm to students," the letter added.
The letter concluded by calling for "excellence in the classroom" and said instructors would "damage the trust we hold with our students by withholding grades."
Police ultimately cleared the encampment on April 30.
UNC-Chapel Hill is located just outside the 9th Congressional District which Hudson represents in the U.S. House of Representatives.
