In a national presidential election which has seen two attempts on a presidential candidate’s life, a University of Kansas professor who was suspended after making violent comments against men in a now viral lecture class video is staying quiet about the possible repercussions.
The incident is the latest in what seems to be in recent years a continuous stream of bizarre political and social public embarrassments at the university.
Phil Lowcock, caught on video from earlier this semester in a KU lecture hall telling his class that men who wouldn’t vote for a woman for President should be lined up and shot, did not respond to the Kansas Informer’s attempts to contact him.
“There are going to be some males in our society that will refuse to vote for a potential female president because they don’t think females are smart enough to be president,” Lowcock says in the video “We could line all those guys up and shoot ’em. They clearly don’t understand the way the world works,” Lowcock said. Then he followed up with “Did I say that? Scratch that from the recording. I don’t want the deans hearing that I said that.”
It wasn’t immediately clear when the video was recorded, but its release followed two attempts on the life of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, one in which he was grazed by an assassin’s bullet at a Butler Penn., political rally, and the second a foiled attempt when secret service agents saw a rifle pointed at him from cover near his Florida golf course.
The Lowcock video ignited a national media firestorm across social media and generated criticism from various sectors, including Republican politicians and the chairman of the Kansas Republican Party Mike Brown.
“This video is beyond disturbing and is exactly what’s wrong with education in America,” Brown said in a statement on Wednesday. “Radical professors like Phillip Lowcock―especially in a taxpayer-funded university―teaching vile and toxic hate to impressionable adults. If it’s happening here, it’s happening elsewhere across our country. Every legislature should examine their funding of programs that allow extremism like this to persist, and every parent should seek institutions aligned with their core values,” said Brown said.
University of Kansas spokesperson Erinn Barcomb-Peterson told The Topeka Capital-Journal in an article published on Wednesday that athletics lecturer Phillip Lowcock had been placed on administrative leave and was the subject of an investigation after a video surfaced of him making the comments during a recent lecture.
“We are aware of the video, which was recorded during a class earlier this semester,” KU spokesperson Erinn Barcomb-Peterson told the Topeka Capital Journal. “The instructor is being placed on administrative leave pending further investigation. The instructor offers his sincerest apologies and deeply regrets the situation. His intent was to emphasize his advocacy for women’s rights and equality, and he recognizes he did a very poor job of doing so.”
Lowcock did not return telephone messages and an email from the Informer requesting comment. It was not immediately clear in what context the topic of voting arose in a lecture on athletics. So far the actual class in which the comments were made has not been named.
The video of Lowcock’s comments is the latest in a seemingly continuous stream of controversial remarks and actions by university staff, students and organizations in recent years.
Earlier this year KU’s daycare, Hilltop Center for Child Development, prompted concern among some parent/clients for its plan to host a drag queen story hour for children there. In 2021 KU’s Student Body President Niya McAdoo circulated a social media message signed with “Death To America.” Previously KU staff organized protests against the expansion of Christian-based sandwich company Chick-fil-A on campus, and University Athletics publicly embraced the terrorist organization Black Lives Matter amid its violent U.S. riots in 2020 that cost some 30 lives and more than a billion dollars in property damage nationwide.
Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA. He is the author of novels "The Skinning Tree" and "A Whisper For Help." As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, KS., he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association's Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
