Current Events > Professor who resigned over controversial tweets found dead in his home

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"Mike Adams, the former University of North Carolina Wilmington professor who angered the campus community on Twitter, was found dead in his home Thursday afternoon, according to the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office.
Adams was found dead and alone in his home during a welfare check at about 2 p.m., Jerry Brewer, a public information officer with the sheriff's department, told CNN. The investigation into his death is ongoing, Brewer said.
Adams' death comes less than a month after the university announced that he would retire following campus uproar over his tweets."

"Adams, a former professor of criminology at UNCW, and author of "Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts 'Womyn' on Campus," was set to retire August 1, Chancellor Jose V. Sartarelli said in a statement posted on the university's website.
"Over the past several weeks, many of you have inquired about the status of a UNCW faculty member, Dr. Mike Adams, in light of the public attention generated by comments he made on his personal social media channels," Sartarelli said. "We can now share the update that after a discussion with Chancellor Sartarelli, Dr. Adams has decided to retire from UNCW, effective August 1, 2020."

"As part of his retirement, Adams received $504,702 from the university for lost salary and lost retirement benefits, Spectrum News 1 reported."

The "controversial" tweets:

"This evening I ate pizza and drank beer with six guys at a six seat table top. I almost felt like a free man who was not living in the slave state of North Carolina. Massa Cooper, let my people go!" he tweeted on May 29."

"Another tweet from Adams, on May 28, read: "Don't shut down the universities. Shut down the non essential majors. Like Women's Studies."

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/23/us/mike-adams-dead-university-of-north-carolina-wilmington-tweets/index.html

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He realized he was a part of the problem

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You could say that was... career suicide.

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How'd he die?

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I don't get this attitude of "I have free right to say whatever I want, therefore it's wrong for my employer to fire me for it."

They can fire you for making them look bad. That's not a free speech violation
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Jesus Christ at that first tweet especially

008Zulu posted...

How'd he die?

Still under investigation. He was in his late 50s, so very well could be natural causes, though somewhat rare without any other pre existing conditions (of which we may not be aware of)

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UnfairRepresent posted...

I don't get this attitude of "I have free right to say whatever I want, therefore it's wrong for my employer to fire me for it."

They can fire you for making them look bad. That's not a free speech violation

For Universities, it's a bit different, particularly for tenured professors. Notice how he resigned willingly (though obviously immense pressure was added) and they gave him $500,000. He probably could have fought it if he refused to retire early.

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Drinking beer and eating pizza with any regularity at that age, it probably wasn't suicide.

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>Criminology

Not surprising lol. If it isn't STEM, CJ are always the awful ones.

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Oh well

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Houston posted...

Still under investigation. He was in his late 50s, so very well could be natural causes, though somewhat rare without any other pre existing conditions (of which we may not be aware of)

It did cite that they performing a welfare check, so probably old age then.

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any context about his first tweet for non Mericans?
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is there evidence of foul play?

Kelystic posted...

any context about his first tweet for non Mericans?

He was using mock slave speak

008Zulu posted...

How'd he die?

Likely from cov19

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So far, 57% of CE thinks either it's ridiculous what he said was controversial, or that it wasn't offensive enough to have him pressured to be fired

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It's unfortunate that he died, he missed out on the chance to become a better person and didn't get to live a full life, plus he likely left family that loved him behind.

That said, the stuff he posted was more fit for a CE conservatroll than for a UNC Professor.

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pressure to resign

Or rescind. "Massa" is not a good look.
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Houston posted...

So far, 57% of CE thinks either it's ridiculous what he said was controversial, or that it wasn't offensive enough to have him pressured to be fired

Im not defending what he said, but you hear this joke A LOT in North Carolina. The massa joke gets thrown around all the time, half the time by black people. (Is this like the N word, where its ok for black people to do it and then white people do it to be cool?) This was an opportunity to have a greater conversation about that joke, but nobody wants to do that. Better to just fire him and pretend he was never here.

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I misunderstood at first because I thought Massa Cooper was somebody's name

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Regardless of the Tweets, $500k to resign seems like a good ass deal to me.

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was going to make a topic about this but searched first to see if anyone already did, so saved myself the trouble. It's too bad he didn't change his detestable perspectives while he was still alive :(

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He was a hero...