Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center acted swiftly to suspend an employee following unearthed screenshots of him expressing antisemitic comments.
The employee is Rudy Meixell, a librarian at Texas Tech’s Health Sciences Center. The Center stated it would also launch an investigation into him after the X account Stop Antisemitism shared multiple screenshots of his postings.
Below are some of the screenshots of social media postings alleged to be by Meixell.
“Hezbollah just launched multiple strikes. Zionism, the real barbarism, will be defeated,” one screenshot showed Meixell posted on February 18.
“It would be nice to have one major party in this country that doesn’t worship the ground Jews walk on,” read another screenshot from March 7.
“F— organized Jewry’s incessant accusations of antisemitism,” showed a screenshot of a May 22 post. “As usual Weiss seems at least as concerned that Zionism is bad for the Jews as he is that it is just that bad.”
Another post showed Meixell opposing moves by Gov. Greg Abbott to combat antisemitism. “F— Greg Abbott and his speech rules to protect Jews from discomfort while the Jewish state commits genocide,” Meixell allegedly wrote in a March 28 post. “What happened to the conservative dismissal of ‘safe spaces?’”
Source: Stop Antisemitism
A May 22 post references an article by Philip Weiss, published May 21. Weiss blamed Israel for the October 7 attacks and pushed a pro-Palestinian narrative.
Source: Stop Antisemitism
Meixell has since locked down his X account.
In a published statement, the Center noted that Meixell’s statements were in opposition to its values.
Rudy Meixell, a unit manager in the library on the Lubbock campus at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, posted a series of social media comments that we were made aware of yesterday, August 30, 2024. We find his social media comments to be hateful, antisemitic, and unacceptable. These social media comments are antithetical to our values, including those found in System Regulation 01.05.
We take the First Amendment’s application to public universities seriously; however, we are also committed to providing a safe learning and working environment that is free from harassment, including antisemitic harassment, and will not tolerate behavior that crosses the line into harassment and interferes with or limits the ability of an individual to participate in the educational activities of TTUHSC.
Additionally, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has recently warned universities that they have the duty under Title VI to take prompt action if it knows, or even should have known, that discriminatory harassment has occurred. The OCR stated that “…a school violates Title VI when it fails to take adequate steps to address discriminatory harassment, such as antisemitic harassment.” Similarly, Governor Abbott’s Executive Order No. GA-44 issued on March 27, 2024, prohibits antisemitism at Texas public institutions of higher education.
Consequently, TTUHSC has immediately suspended Rudy Meixell with pay pending an investigation that will be conducted by the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) at the Texas Tech University System (System). OEO will investigate whether any of the antisemitic sentiments expressed by Meixell’s social media comments have found their way into the academic or the work environment and are deemed to be discriminatory harassment. If it is determined by OEO that discriminatory harassment has occurred, TTUHSC will take prompt and effective action. There will be no further comment from System or TTUHSC personnel until the investigation has been completed.
TTUHSC is committed to the success and safety of its students, staff and faculty. If a member of the TTUHSC community is aware of any discriminatory harassment, including antisemitic harassment, it can be reported directly to OEO via the process outlined in TTUHSC OP 51.02 and the matter will be investigated.
The Texas Tech University System, or an entity within it, has responded to concerns in several instances recently when made aware of actions that contradicted the university’s values.
In February, leadership suspended Assistant Professor Jairo Funez-Flores for antisemitic posts on social media. In May, leadership announced new structures were put in place after an on-campus research project held a “Queering Agriculture” seminar.
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