UGA's College of Engineering has just posted a statement about George Haynie, their neo-Nazi staffer. The news isn’t good:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DD42DUOxkda/?img_index=1

Yes, George Haynie is now back on the job as a manager at the College of Engineering.

We encourage you to read the response linked to above by Mutual Aid Athens, which contrasts the kid glove treatment of Haynie with the iron fist punishment carried out against pro-Palestinian UGA students also exercising their right to free speech. UGA is currently being sued by CAIR over this treatment.

https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-georgia-co-counsel-file-civil-rights-complaint-on-behalf-of-university-of-georgia-students/

According to their statement, UGA put George Haynie on administrative leave for a month or so, then asked him if he really held a nation-wide neo-Nazi conference and entertainment event on his property featuring a giant flaming swastika visible from space. He said something along the lines of, “Yes, but I wasn’t directly personally involved with it.” They said something along the lines of, “Oh that’s okay then, come on back to work.”

In their own words:

"As a state institution subject to Board of Regents policy and the First Amendment, the University of Georgia cannot discipline employees for personal, off-campus expressive activity, no matter how offensive or repugnant those activities may be."

This is complete bullshit.

It’s clear that the UGA spent this time making a cost analysis and are gambling that they’ll lose less money catering to neo-Nazis and their sympathizers than they'd lose by doing the right thing for their university community and firing George Haynie.

As another contrast, this time non-political, we’d like to point to UGA’s 2023 firing of Victoria Bowles. Bowles was a football recruiting staffer who received horrific injuries following a fatal crash in a car that was driven by another UGA football recruiting staffer. She exercised her freedom of speech to sue the university for placing her in that position, and then the University quickly fired her.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/38156010/georgia-fires-staffer-survived-fatal-crash-sued-bulldogs

UGA could easily fire George Haynie if they wanted to. They simply don’t want to.

Our advice to the UGA and Athens community (especially to Jewish, Muslim, LGBTQ+ students, and others most targeted by neo-Nazis) is to organize together with each other and make the University see that your lives are worth far more than a few dollars on the bottom line.

For further reference, our original post exposing the Haynies:

https://atlantaantifa.org/2024/11/01/meet-george-raymond-haynie-iii-and-shannon-ashley-haynie-aryan-fest-hosts-and-neo-nazi-pregnancy-crisis-housing-organizers/