MOUNT PLEASANT, MI — Central Michigan University won’t say if a professor who was the subject of an investigation involving racist language in the classroom is still employed there.
But the university late Wednesday, Sept. 2, removed his name from its website and the campus newspaper reports he no longer is employed at CMU.
On June 22, CMU alumna Skyler Mills posted a nine-second video on her Instagram account featuring audio of Professor Tim Boudreau in his classroom twice saying the n-word. In the same post, Mills also featured a still photo of Boudreau with a projected document that features two racial slurs. Mills wrote over the photo, “Why does he do things like this.”
Boudreau was placed on paid administrative leave on June 26.
Heather L. Smith, CMU’s executive director of communications, told MLive on July 8 that CMU staff were aware of Mills’ post and that an investigation was underway.
On Aug. 25, Smith declined to say if Boudreau’s employment was terminated.
On Wednesday, Sept. 2, the campus paper Central Michigan Life reported College of the Arts and Media Interim Dean Elizabeth Kirby sent an email to journalism faculty that Boudreau was no longer employed.
Contacted by MLive, Kirby said she is “unable to discuss personnel matters regarding employees.”
Smith gave a similar response.
“Last time we talked, I told you that the university could not speak to personnel matters,” Smith said Wednesday afternoon. “That remains our response to this.”
Mills and the CMU Faculty Association could not be reached immediately for comment.
CMU, home to one of Michigan’s largest journalism schools, listed Boudreau on its website as chairperson of its Journalism Department until at least 4 p.m. on Wednesday. As of 5:10 p.m., Boudreau’s name, photo, and contact information had been deleted from the page.
Mills previously provided context for Boudreau’s comments in the video, saying that when he made them, he was referring to what had been said by former CMU men’s basketball coach Keith Dambrot. Dambrot was fired in 1993 over his use of a racial slur.
Mills also previously told MLive that Boudreau said the n-word outside of reading from a quote contained in a lawsuit he was discussing.
Mills said she recorded the footage of Boudreau during a Media Law class in the spring of 2017, what would have been her junior year. She graduated from CMU in 2019.
Regarding Dambrot, he later sued CMU over his termination, alleging his First Amendment rights had been violated. He reportedly used the n-word during what he described as a “motivational speech” after his team lost a January 1993 game.
The case is referenced as part of Boudreau’s “Hate Speech and Speech Codes at Universities” unit, Central Michigan Life reports.
According to his biography before it was removed from CMU’s website, Boudreau worked for about 10 years as a reporter-photographer, copy editor, and editor for weekly and daily newspapers in Kentucky, Florida, Virginia, and Ohio. Boudreau in 2017 was appointed chairperson of the university’s Journalism Department.
Boudreau could not be reached for comment.
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