Purdue University Northwest may expel student who criticized Black Lives Matter

A conservative college student at Purdue University Northwest says he faces expulsion after his social media criticisms of Black Lives Matter were reported to administrators.

Joshua Nash, a 21-year-old biological sciences major at the university, received a summons to meet with university administrators shortly after he made a Facebook post critical of the movement.

“I had a comment on Facebook where I stated ’Black Lives Matter is trash because they do not really care about black lives,’ ” Mr. Nash recalled the post, as reported by the College Fix. ” ’They simply care about making money and disrupting events for dead people.’ “

The June 6 letter from the university says a “community member” reported the post and told Mr. Nash he had to attend a “required Administrative Meeting” on July 19.

The missive is signed by Andrew Pettee, who serves as Purdue Northwest’s deputy Title IX coordinator and investigates “complaints of harassment or discrimination,” according to the university’s website.

Mr. Nash said he called the university for more information about the impending meeting. During the call, he said a campus official told him that his comments could result in expulsion.

The campus official also reportedly told Mr. Nash, who is gay, that his use of the Twitter hashtag “#DangerousFaggot” — a reference to gay conservative provocateur Milo Yannopoulos — is “homophobic.”

“Those were their words,” Mr. Nash told the College Fix.

In a statement to the College Fix, the university denied threatening Mr. Nash with expulsion or otherwise planning to discipline him for his remarks.

“Purdue Northwest has never suggested, let alone threatened, the idea of disciplining the student in question for exercising his rights to freedom of expression,” the statement said. “When, as here, an administrative meeting is called with a student on our Calumet campus, the purpose is to explore possible ways to support or establish a dialogue with that student, not to discipline him or her.”

But Mr. Nash said he was “saddened that a public university would threaten a student with expulsion, something that could ruin their life, because they dared express their opinions on a private social media network.”