Overview
- A Monday vote by the University of Tennessee System Board of Trustees approved a $1.9 million settlement to resolve Tamar Shirinian’s lawsuit alleging the university violated her constitutional rights.
- Shirinian made the posts after Charlie Kirk was shot on Sept. 10 and called him a "disgusting psychopath" while writing that "the world is better off without him in it," comments she later apologized for as "insensitive."
- The university put Shirinian on administrative leave and fired her on Feb. 11, and the settlement does not reinstate her employment.
- In a February termination letter, Chancellor Donde Plowman wrote that Shirinian’s words celebrated a gruesome murder and demeaned the grief of the victim’s family, which the university cited in its disciplinary action.
- The deal closes the case without further comment from the university and highlights a broader legal and institutional debate over public employees’ social‑media speech and how universities manage reputational and legal risk.