School Spotlight
Kirkwood Community College
Speech Code Rating
- At present, FIRE does not maintain information on this school's policies.
Kirkwood Community College: Professor Removed From Class Following Anti-Trump Facebook Post, Affiliation With Antifa
August 27, 2019
In August 2019, President Trump tweeted that he was considering designating “ANTIFA, the gutless Radical Left Wack Jobs who go around hitting (only non-fighters) people over the heads with baseball bats, a major Organization of Terror.” Jeff Klinzman, then an adjunct English professor at Iowa’s Kirkwood Community College, posted a response on an “Iowa Antifa”… Read more
AAUP criticizes Kirkwood Community College’s rush to terminate ‘antifa’ professor
September 17, 2019
Last month, FIRE wrote to Kirkwood Community College to call on administrators to rescind their termination of Jeffrey Klinzman, an adjunct professor whose Facebook comments about President Trump and evangelical Christians, and his affirmation that he views himself as “antifa,” sparked public anger. The college’s leadership professed that it was motivated not by Klinzman’s speech,… Read more
Kirkwood College president on axing ‘antifa’ professor: ‘If I’m found legally wrong on this, I can live with that.’
August 28, 2019
Yesterday, FIRE sent a letter to Kirkwood Community College’s president explaining why the First Amendment does not permit the Iowa college to penalize professor Jeff Klinzman, notwithstanding public pressure in the wake of media reports on his self-identification as “antifa” and his past social media comments about President Trump and Christians. For a shorter explanation… Read more
Kirkwood Community College parts ways with ‘antifa’ professor, raising First Amendment concerns
August 27, 2019
On Friday afternoon, Iowa’s Kirkwood Community College issued an internally-inconsistent statement announcing “our decision to remove” Jeff Klinzman, an adjunct faculty member, from the classroom in order to avoid the “potential impact on our learning environment.” Yesterday, FIRE wrote to Kirkwood’s leadership to explain why its constructive termination of Klinzman — which Kirkwood characterized as… Read more