ETSU professor on leave for social media comments retires

East Tennessee State University biomedical sciences professor Russell Brown, who faced a university effort to fire him over Facebook posts he made after conservative influencer Charlie Kirk’s September 10 murder, has retired. Brown sent a letter to ETSU administration September 25 announcing his retirement would be effective Monday. Brown was one of two professors ETSU placed on leave Sept. 11 after complaints about posts they had made in the wake of Kirk’s killing. Brown initially chose to contest ETSU’s effort to terminate him for “adequate cause.”  He had the right to a hearing before a faculty panel in what could have been a multi-step process. Instead, he retired on Monday. Brown had worked at ETSU since 2000.