The post came just a few days after Hamas killed about 1,200 Israeli civilians, including women and children, as well as 250 people attending the Supernova music festival.<\/p>\n
Mullen, who is a poet, said in recent interviews with several media outlets the post was artistic in nature and meant to explain why the killings might have taken place as opposed to justifying them.<\/p>\n
The Wake Report<\/em> student newspaper reported<\/a> Nov. 16 that Mullen said she did not feel supported by administration: \u201cLike if you watch animal films and you isolate one gazelle, that\u2019s the one that gets eaten. They kind of threw me to the wolves.\u201d<\/p>\n However, there are no public indications that administrators had asked Mullen (pictured<\/em>) to resign or publicly apologize or that she faced any disciplinary action.<\/p>\n Mullen’s original post went viral; it garnered over 27,000 views and provoked immediate backlash from the campus community as well as from some angry parents and donors, according to media reports.<\/p>\n Mullen told the Wake Report her comments were meant to be \u201craw, direct [and] poetic.\u201d She also defended her post to the Winston-Salem Journal<\/em>, saying it was her understanding of history and the \u201cresults of oppression.\u201d<\/p>\n “When 9\/11 happened, I was asking myself and others, ‘What did we do to make people want to come and do that to us?’ That is how my mind works,\u201d she told<\/a> the Journal<\/em>. \u201cI don’t believe in clear lines between victims and perpetrators, that terrorism comes out of a vacuum. That doesn’t mean I condone terrorism. I care deeply about what happens to innocent people everywhere.”<\/p>\n But some students perceived the post as violent, sparking fear within the school\u2019s Jewish community. The Chabad Student Board, a Jewish organization, issued a statement condemning her comments, the Carolina Journal<\/em> reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cNo student should have to fear for their safety or feel uncomfortable while sitting in class, but as she is a professor in a position of authority and influence, Jewish students now feel scared to take her classes,\u201d the statement read. \u201cHer threatening language plays into anti-Semitic sentiment, a problem that poses a threat to Wake Forest students and that has no place at our school.\u201d<\/p>\n According to an Oct. 17 university statement, Wake Forest President Susan Wente and Provost Michele Gillespie said that while the university did not \u201ccondone or support\u201d the views in Mullen\u2019s post, it considered it to be an expression of free speech.<\/p>\n \u201cFree expression and academic freedom are foundational to the mission of higher education and the tradition of constructive and civil discourse and debate at Wake Forest,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n \u201cAdherence to both applicable laws related to First Amendment protections and Wake Forest policies guides University actions when free speech and our institutional values come into conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n In response to the backlash, Mullen initially took to X to defend her post and her right to free speech, tagging PEN America, a nonprofit that protects free speech.<\/p>\n \u201cHuzzah to everyone who wants me silenced for expressing an understanding of the fact that despair leads to violence,\u201d she wrote<\/a>. \u201cA human truth. A \u2018duh.\u2019 Facts are neither changed or erased by those writers who notice and report.\u201d<\/p>\n MORE: Professor praises gas bombs at Jewish leader\u2019s home: \u2018pretty cool\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n IMAGES: Main, YouTube screenshot<\/a>; Inside, WFU Insider<\/a><\/p>\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/MullenWFU.jpg\")
However, after intense backlash and scrutiny, she resigned Oct. 31, citing \u201cpersonal reasons,\u201d the Old Gold and Black<\/em> student newspaper reported<\/a>, adding it appears she is not slated to teach any classes during the spring 2024 semester.<\/p>\n