We often have only an outside perspective of what happens after a university professor loses their position for wrongdoing. We see the aftermath: an angry educator lashing out at academia, claiming they were wronged by the school. What we rarely see is the other side: what did they say or do to incur the consequences of their actions? What leads to a university management decision to remove them from campus?
Recently, I gained deeper insight into this process when I composed an email to the University of Toronto about Dr. Ruth Marshall, a Political Science professor who made open threats toward the Greater Toronto Jewish community and expressed support for Hamas on her university-linked X account. Dr. Marshall was brought to my attention because she chose to reply to something I posted with one of her posts supporting Hamas. Had she not chosen to interact with me, I wouldn’t have the insight I do now. I chose to compose an email to the Political Science department at University of Toronto after speaking with them over the phone and being asked to provide the proof of their professor’s actions. I had no problem doing this and drafted the message, including multiple screenshots of her behavior for the university to review.
A few days later, I received a message from the Chair of the department, Ryan Balot:
“Thank you for reaching out to share your thoughts and concerns with our office. We wanted to respond promptly to share with you the statement that we have provided to the media: The University took immediate action upon learning of the concerning social media posts of a University of Toronto professor. The faculty member is now on leave and not on campus. The matter is being looked into and the University will not be commenting further.
Thank you again for your message.
Yours sincerely,
Ryan Balot
Professor and Chair
Department of Political Science”
As the University of Toronto is not commenting further on the matter, I can only deduce that this professor will not return to her position any time soon. Before writing this, I checked the professor’s X account, and it has been deleted.