Prof. accused of being white supremacist leaves Austin Peay

An assistant professor of counseling psychology has left Austin Peay State College after antifascists accused him on-line of being a white supremacist who attended the 2017 Unite the Proper Rally in Charlottesville, Va.

Logan Smith and Austin Peay State “mutually agreed to finish employment” Sept. 20, college president Mike Licari introduced final week in a message to the Tennessee campus neighborhood. Licari’s announcement didn’t present additional particulars, and Smith hasn’t returned Inside Greater Ed’s requests for remark.

On Sept. 9, an antifascist X account known as Ignite The Proper posted that “it has been dropped at our consideration that white supremacist Logan Michael Smith” had completed his Ph.D. and was employed on the college. Ignite The Proper linked to the web site for Daylight Anti-Fascist Motion, which alleged that the Logan Smith at Austin Peay State had used the pseudonym Levi Smith and operated racist social media accounts known as /pol/ Information Community, or PNN.

Daylight Anti-Fascist Motion, which describes itself as “a collective” of antifascist researchers “devoted to exposing Nazis, racists and fascists,” known as for folks to warn the college. On Sept. 11, the college posted on X that it “can not verify the allegations circulating on-line” however “management is conscious of the state of affairs and is assessing validity.”

On Sept. 17, Licari wrote to the campus neighborhood that the college was nonetheless “actively assessing the state of affairs” and “in mild of those occasions, we’re enhancing our hiring practices. This consists of requiring candidates to reveal previous actions that might injury the status of the college and using third-party skilled companies to conduct social media checks on candidates.”

The All State, the scholar newspaper, reported that college students started sharing the allegations on the college’s PeayMobile App. College spokesperson Invoice Persinger instructed Inside Greater Ed that college students protested at a Board of Trustees assembly on Sept. 20—which ended up being Smith’s final day.

Smith’s on-line bio, which the college has taken down, mentioned his “analysis pursuits largely give attention to suicide prevalence, prediction and prevention.” As well as, his “scientific pursuits contain suicide prevention, trauma, obsessive-compulsive dysfunction and temper and nervousness issues extra broadly.”