Campus News

Suspended Professor Who Said It’s ‘Admirable’ To Kill Campus Speakers Made Six-Figure Salary

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A Wayne State University (WSU) professor who wrote that it is more “admirable” to kill a conservative speaker than it is to shout them down on a college campus makes a six-figure salary, according to a salary report published by the union AAUP-AFT.

Steven Shaviro, a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences professor, wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post that “it is far more admirable to kill a racist, homophobic, or transphobic speaker than it is to shout them down.” WSU suspended Shaviro, and a salary report shows that he makes a $140,926 salary as of 2022.

Shaviro also receives $1,494 in additional compensation, according to the report. WSU is a public university that earned $213.6 million in taxpayer money during the current fiscal year, Michigan Capitol Confidential reported.

The report was obtained by AAUP-AFT through a public records request, which it sends to “access the salaries of all University employees, as well as the selective salaries in [its] bargaining unit,” according to its website.

Shaviro’s salary is more than double the average median household income in Michigan, which was $63,202 between 2017-2021, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The per capita income in the past 12 months between 2017-2021 was $34,768.

Wayne State Professor Calls of Murder of Those Who Express Opinions He Disagrees With

“I think it is far more admirable to kill a racist, homophobic, or transphobic speaker than it is to shout them down.”https://t.co/Wt6nRYmkN7

— YAF (@yaf) March 27, 2023

On Twitter, the professor describes himself as a “stealth assassin from the clouds” and a “Kitsch marxist,” according to his bio. His account is currently private.

“When right-wing groups invite such speakers to campus, it is precisely because they want to provoke an incident that discredits the left, and gives more publicity and validation to these reprehensible views than they could otherwise attain,” Shaviro wrote in the Facebook post. “These protesters get blamed instead of the bigoted speaker; the university administration finds a perfect excuse to side publicly with the racist or phobes; the national and international press has a field day saying that bigots are the ones being oppressed, rather than the people those bigots actually hate being the victims of oppression.”

WSU President Roy Wilson wrote in a campus-wide email on Monday that the speech went beyond free speech protections and that it was reported to law enforcement for review. Shaviro’s profile remains active on the university website.

WSU and Shaviro did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.