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 This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. ||||| Political commentator Lisa Durden was suspended as a professor at Essex County College after she made an appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight. 
 
 You may recall Durden sparring with Tucker Carlson earlier this month to defend Black Lives Matter not allowing non-blacks to attend their Memorial Day party in New York City. The interview was so bizarre that Carlson concluded it by calling her “demented.” 
 
 When she arrived on the New Jersey campus on June 8, two days after she appeared on Fox News, she was told to cancel her classes and report to Human Resources. 
 
 Durden was given a letter, signed by the vice president of academic affairs Jeffrey Lee, that said she was suspended “until further notice.” 
 
 “They did this to humiliate me,” Durden reacted. “Essex County College publicly lynched me in front of my students.” 
 
 While the letter didn’t directly mention her appearance on Fox News, administration officials brought it up to her in person. 
 
 There is currently an online petition for Essex County College to reinstate Durden, which so far has over 800 signatures. 
 
 When asked to comment on Durden’s firing, Lee told this to the press. 
 
 “The college promotes a community of unity that is inclusive of all. The general counsel has handled this matter in a way that complies with New Jersey state law. I am not at liberty to provide further details.” 
 
 Carlson addressed the firing on his show Tuesday night and while he said that he almost never applauds the firing of anyone on his show, he called the fact that she taught kids “insane.” 
 
 Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com ||||| Essex County College hired pop culture commentator and producer Lisa Durden as an adjunct professor of communications, in part for her past appearances on such networks as Fox News. She’d also built a relationship with the college over the years by inviting students to intern with her, assisting on TV and documentary production projects. But it took just one angry phone call about her recent appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight for her to lose her teaching job, she says. 
 
 “I was publicly lynched,” she said Tuesday about being escorted from her summer-term class earlier this month to a meeting with administrators, who told her she was being suspended and investigated. “They wanted to send a message. ‘See what happened to Lisa Durden? You know it could happen to me.’ Free speech doesn’t matter if you’re a professor, make people mad and you’re in trouble." 
 
 Durden says she was told that an unnamed person had called Essex to complain about her comments to Carlson the night before. The complaint surprised Durden because, in her words, she’s a regular commentator on Fox and elsewhere on everything from “Kim Kardashian’s ass to tough issues such as Black Lives Matter.” She’d appeared on a panel at Essex called Radical Women in Media, at the college’s request, earlier this year. And she'd satisfactorily -- to her knowledge -- taught two other courses in the spring term. 
 
 Pressed further, officials allegedly told Durden that she’d improperly identified herself on the show as an Essex professor. But Durden didn’t. The clip, in which she argues in favor of the right of Black Lives Matter protesters to claim all-black protest spaces on Memorial Day, includes no reference to Essex by Durden, Carlson or anyone else. In fact, Durden at one point says, "I'm speaking for Lisa Durden." 
 
 Durden is outspoken, but her comments aren't necessarily out of the ordinary for her, or for debate segments on cable news these days. When Carlson asked her why it was acceptable to exclude whites from a black gathering, she said, for example, "Boo-hoo-hoo, you white people are just angry you couldn't use your white privilege card to get invited to the Black Lives Matter all-black Memorial Day celebration." (She makes clear that she is not speaking for Black Lives Matter but rather defending supporters' right to hold the event.) Carlson argues that racially exclusive events are hypocritical and calls Durden "disgusting." She argues back that mainstream culture is implicitly exclusive of racial groups on regular basis; the Bachelorette TV show took 11 seasons to cast a black bachelorette, for instance, she says. 
 
 Despite not naming Essex during the show, Durden says she’s still being investigated. Someone else has taken over her course. She believes the college is “kowtowing” to a “racist,” publicly unidentified critic, rather than standing up for the free speech rights of a well-liked professor dedicated to working with students from the Newark area. 
 
 Many professors appear as commentators across networks, write op-eds or otherwise express their views as private citizens. The American Association of University Professors recognizes their right to do so and says that "professors should be free from institutional censorship or discipline." Yet relevant AAUP policy cautions that "their special position in the community imposes special obligations. As scholars and educational officers, they should remember that the public may judge their profession and their institution by their utterances. Hence they should at all times be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint, should show respect for the opinions of others and should make every effort to indicate that they are not speaking for the institution." 
 
 Durden, of course, is a not a typical scholar in that she was an outspoken media personality before coming to Essex. 
 
 The experience has been eye-opening, she said, as she’s learned the hard way about the lack of due process rights for adjuncts across the country. But this time Essex may learn a lesson, too, she said. “I’m a media person." 
 
 Durden and her supporters held a press conference Tuesday, calling for her reinstatement next academic year and for equitable working conditions for all instructors, for example. She and faculty and student allies also attended a Board of Trustees meeting on campus Tuesday evening. 
 
 They’ve also circulated a petition that’s gained hundreds of names and attracted national attention. Questioning why a "predominantly black institution" would "effectively fire" Durden, the petition says she is a lifelong Newark resident "who has given her time and expertise generously to the youth of the city. She has provided highly competitive internships in New York media for Essex County College students for a decade. She was recently honored by the city of Newark for her outstanding work in media with women and young people." 
 
 Durden has braved "racist death threats from the alt-right movement to speak truth to power on national television," it says. "Why is Essex County College firing a beloved professor for exercising her First Amendment right? In Trump’s America, are black women professors not allowed the right to free speech?" 
 
 Essex did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Jeffrey Lee, vice president for academic affairs, said in a statement to NJ.com that the college “promotes a community of unity that is inclusive of all” and that “general counsel has handled this matter in a way that complies with New Jersey state law.” He provided no further details. 
 
 A number of Durden's campus colleagues have written letters to the college, expressing support for her. 
 
 "For those of us who are involved in advocacy, politics, who may hold opinions which differ from those in different spaces, this kind of thing has a terrible chilling effect,'' wrote Rebecca Williams, an assistant professor of humanities. "As this suspension will become public in the world of academia -- and especially in black public intellectual circles -- it will bring more negative publicity to our institution even as we are trying to move forward with our new president," Anthony Munroe, who was appointed last month. 
 
 Jennifer Wager, professor of communications, wrote in another letter that she'd already asked Durden to teach courses in the fall and needed to know if she was returning. 
 
 "Durden has done amazing work for Essex County College for over a decade without ever getting paid," she said. "She has secured communications students coveted internships in New York media with top documentary producers and organizations[.] ... I find it shocking that an African-American woman would be so disrespected at her place of employment for merely exercising her First Amendment right to free speech." ||||| On June 8, Lisa Durden, a producer, filmmaker and media commentator, arrived at Essex County College in Newark to teach her speech class. 
 
 It was the closing days of the summer session and Durden was already set for the fall semester. She was listed as a returning adjunct professor to teach mass communication and popular culture and two effective speech courses. 
 
 Two days before, she had appeared as a political commentator on the Fox News show "Tucker Carlson Tonight," invited to give her opinion as to why Black Lives Matter organizers held a Memorial Day event in Brooklyn for black people only. 
 
 When she arrived on campus June 8, Durden was abruptly suspended. She was told she had to cancel classes and report to the Human Resources Department. 
 
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 Durden, without an explanation, informed her students, who were still waiting for her to arrive, that class was canceled. 
 
 That confused her students: Durden had always told them that she would never be absent unless "she had died.'' 
 
 She didn't have a reason. She didn't know why, until she went to Human Resources 
 
 "They did this to humiliate me,'' Durden said. "Essex County College publicly lynched me in front of my students.'' 
 
 Durden was given a letter, signed by Jeffrey Lee, vice president for academic affairs, informing her that she was suspended "until further notice." She had to turn over her grade book to Christopher Rivera, chairperson of the Humanities Division. 
 
 The letter does not mention the Tucker Carlson show, but Durden said administration officials made a point of bringing it up that day. In a meeting with Lee and Karen Bridgett, assistant director of Human Resources, Durden said Bridgett told her someone "complained'' that she associated herself to the college during the television show appearance. 
 
 Not true, and Durden proved it. 
 
 Look at the six-minute clip. It's on the internet. Google Lisa Durden and Tucker Carlson. Next to her name, it says political commentator. During the contentious discussion with Carlson, Durden never identified herself as a professor at the college. Durden said she was representing herself while arguing that Black Lives Matter had a right to have a Memorial Day celebration in a safe space for black people at a time when there's a rise in white nationalism and racism. 
 
 Considering her explanation, Durden, and many who support her, want to know what she did wrong. Durden said Bridgett told her the matter is being investigated. 
 
 "There's got to be some other agenda,'' said Leslie Farber, her attorney. "It seems to me they're going to make up some reason. We've got to figure out what that is and why. Is she too outspoken?" 
 
 When I called the college administration to ask, Lee would offer only a three-sentence statement that he read to me over the phone: 
 
 "The college promotes a community of unity that is inclusive of all. The general counsel has handled this matter in a way that complies with New Jersey state law. I am not at liberty to provide further details.'' 
 
 Durden, who wants to be reinstated, is fuming, believing her right to free speech has been trampled. 
 
 Colleagues agree and have submitted letters expressing concern and outrage. They've started an online petition, with nearly 500 signatures, demanding she be reinstated. 
 
 "I find it shocking that an African-American woman would be so disrespected at her place of employment for merely exercising her First Amendment right to free speech,'' said Professor Jennifer Wager. 
 
 The union that represents adjunct professors is not happy, either, saying Durden is covered by the union but it did not know Durden was being suspended. As a result, there wasn't a union representative at the meeting when the administration handed her the suspension letter. 
 
 It is unclear, however, if the administration has a responsibility to advise Durden, who didn't know her rights at the time. 
 
 Students are fired up, too, about how a good semester ended up in a tailspin. They looked forward to her class, describing Durden as a dynamic professor who had shy students speaking with confidence. About five of them went to the Human Resources Department the day of the suspension seeking answers about their grades and to find out what was happening to Durden. 
 
 "I think she was done wrong,'' said Demond Hill, 45. "They treated this thing like she embezzled money.'' 
 
 The senior member of the class, 68-year-old Paulette Jones, said Durden's treatment is not the way an institution of higher learning treats one of its own. 
 
 "This is a college,'' Jones said. "We're talking about critical thinking, the right to have different opinions.'' 
 
 The past year has not been stellar for the two-year school. Last year, the college fired President Gale Gibson and general counsel Rashidah Hasan, and laid off 20 employees. Anthony Munroe was hired last month as the new president, and you now have this chaos to wind down the semester. 
 
 "For those of us who are involved in advocacy, politics, who may hold opinions which differ from those in different spaces, this kind of thing has a terrible chilling effect,'' Rebecca Williams, an assistant professor, wrote in her letter to the administration. 
 
 "As this suspension will become public in the world of academia -- and especially in black public intellectual circles -- it will bring more negative publicity to our institution even as we are trying to move forward with our new president.'' 
 
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 Wager, who recommended Durden for employment, said her colleague has been an asset to the college even before getting hired in January. For more than a decade, the Newark native has participated on panels at the school without getting paid, and landed New York media internships for communication students, some of which have led to full-time employment. 
 
 Since joining the faculty, Wager said, class feedback about Durden has been "effusively positive,'' and she has a "following of students that really liked the fact that she brought real- world media experience to the classroom.'' 
 
 Durden has appeared on other Fox programs, including "Fox and Friends" and "The Kelly Files with Megyn Kelly." If it wasn't a problem then when she was vocal on political and race issues, why now? 
 
 The college certainly didn't mind in March, when Durden was a panelist on a school-sponsored program that gives you a good idea that she speaks her mind. 
 
 It was called "Radical Women in Media.'' 
 
 Barry Carter: (973) 836-4925 or bcarter@starledger.com or 
 
 nj.com/carter or follow him on Twitter @BarryCarterSL
– An adjunct professor in New Jersey says she was suspended by the administration because of an appearance on Fox News, the Star-Ledger reports. Lisa Durden was scheduled to teach courses on speech and popular culture at Essex County College in the fall but was informed June 8 she had been indefinitely suspended. "They did this to humiliate me,'' Durden says. "Essex County College publicly lynched me in front of my students.'' Two days earlier, she had appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight to defend a Black Lives Matter event. According to Mediaite, it didn't go well, with Carlson calling Durden "demented" at one point. Durden says officials told her she was suspended because she associated herself with the college during the appearance. But Inside Higher Ed reports that at no point did Durden mention her position at Essex and even specified she was "speaking for Lisa Durden." It wasn't her first appearance on Fox News, and Durden believes someone called the college to complain about her comments and the administration caved. On Tuesday, Carlson was supportive of the decision to suspend Durden, calling the idea of her teaching children "insane." Durden's colleagues are trying to get her reinstated, and an online petition has more than 1,000 signatures. "I find it shocking that an African-American woman would be so disrespected at her place of employment for merely exercising her First Amendment right to free speech,'' one Essex professor says.