For the past two weeks, students and faculty of Christopher Newport University have been embroiled in debate over a professor’s posts on social media.
After attempts to speak publicly, scholar-in-residence Sophia Nelson addressed the CNU community for the first time in an open letter explaining why she will not attend a Nov. 9 forum to meet with students.
She also stated she will fulfill her contract with CNU, which ends in May. It is unclear if Nelson will stay with the university after this academic year.
The College of Arts & Humanities sent the letter via email addressing her Oct. 11 tweet about a DC Comics character coming out as bisexual in an upcoming issue. She tweeted that bisexuality was being “forced on kids” and some Christian parents would have a hard time explaining it to their children.
Her remarks upset several LGBTQ+ students and faculty on campus. Nelson removed the tweet and apologized. But the controversy continued with student forums, a protest and a petition from a student calling for her removal.
Nelson stated that as a Black woman, “I could stay offended every day of my life at the daily microaggressions, marginalization, and open hostilities I face as a woman of color. However, when we operate in offense, nothing good comes from it. …
I “made clear on my feed in other tweets that ‘homophobia’ was wrong and certainly not something I believe in or support. I was engaging in a clear back and forth dialogue with my many followers about not exposing children to any kind of sexualization in Comic Books. Including heterosexuals, and I even mentioned Christian characters not being appropriate as well,” Nelson wrote. “Any fair and complete reading of my entire Twitter thread on October 11th, shows that to be the absolute truth.”
“What has happened at CNU over the past weeks has been disappointing to me. We are now the next college in the spotlight for ‘cancel culture’,” she wrote.
Nelson is an author and political pundit who has appeared on CNN, MSNBC and ABC. She has worked as an adjunct professor at the university but was named the first Black woman scholar-in-residence Oct. 1. She was expected to help lead a planned Women’s Policy and Politics Leadership Center at CNU.
She said earlier in the week she realized her post hurt students. She added that she made attempts to make amends, but was often denied.
As an opinion writer and political pundit, Nelson said she has to remind herself that she represents the university.
I am “someone who now has to be mindful that we have a lot of diverse communities on a college campus,” she said during a phone interview Wednesday.
The week before, Danielle Stern, a communications professor and faculty advisor to the student body’s LGBTQ+ community, sent a letter to school President Paul Trible — with 170 signatures from faculty and staff — asking that the university denounce Nelson’s comments and affirm its students who may have been offended.
Stern, who is bisexual, said during a phone interview Tuesday she wrote the letter because she was concerned for students.
Trible released a statement, shortly after Stern sent her letter, acknowledging that many students and faculty “hurt” and outlined ways CNU would mediate the issue.
“We look forward to the hard, complex conversations through which we will learn, model, and embrace true, honorable discourse as a lifetime commitment,” Trible wrote.
The Student Government held two open forums for students to speak. When Nelson learned of a forum on Oct. 21, she asked SGA President Mary Romanello if she could have a Zoom conference with the students; Nelson lives in Loudon County. Romanello told Nelson that would prevent students from speaking freely.
Nelson also approached the school newspaper about publishing an open letter, according to emails obtained by The Virginian-Pilot. But on Sunday, the day before her deadline, the news editor Evelyn Davidson told Nelson her letter wouldn’t make it in the issue because her letter was too long — if she shortened it, it might run later.
Abigail Honeycutt, 19, who organized a protest Monday and started the petition calling for Nelson’s removal, said Friday’s letter gave the impression that students “aren’t worth her time and that (Nelson) doesn’t care.”
Honeycutt, who is part of the LGBTQ+ community, felt “disheartened” when she read Nelson’s tweet, but felt more disappointed at CNU. She felt its response didn’t take a firm stance in support of her and her peers. She said that many LGBTQ students don’t have their presence affirmed until they get to college.
“It makes us all question, are we really supported? Do we really belong?” Honeycutt said.
Honeycutt and Stern believe everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but said those same opinions have consequences, especially for people in leadership at a public institution.
“When you become a symbol of a school, or an organization or an institution, you become that symbol for us,” Honeycutt said.
Nelson said in her letter that she was hurt because the students were hurt. Though she’s tried different ways to communicate with faculty and staff, she feels the events unfolding at CNU have “gone too far.” She read a story on Fox News Wednesday about Honeycutt’s petition calling her comments racist and homophobic. Nelson said she was “shell-shocked” and said that’s where she had to draw the line.
“I do get why they’re hurt and upset, and I addressed it immediately,” Nelson said in her phone interview. “But I don’t understand what this has become.”
Sierra Jenkins, 229-462-8896, sierra.jenkins@virginiamedia.com
