Professor who suggested shooting men who won’t vote for female presidential nominee leaves university

LAWRENCE, Kan. (KCTV/Gray News) - A University of Kansas professor who suggested during a lecture that men who refuse to vote for a female presidential candidate should be shot has left the school after video of the comments went viral.

Dr. Phil Lowcock was a lecturer in the university’s Department of Health, Sport & Exercise Sciences, KCTV reports. He left the school after he was placed on administrative leave Wednesday, according to KU Provost & Executive Vice Chancellor Barbara A. Bichelmeyer.

The announcement was made Friday. The university said in a statement it is “working to identify a new instructor to assume the responsibility for his classes, and we are working with the students impacted by this change.”

In video posted to X, Lowcock can be heard critiquing how some people might approach the election.

“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,” he said. “We could line all those guys up and shoot them. They clearly don’t understand the way the world works.”

Lowcock then appeared to regret his words and followed up by saying, “Did I say that? Scratch that from the recording. I don’t want the deans hearing that I said that.”

The university confirmed the video was classroom footage.

Bichelmeyer called Lowcock’s comments “highly inappropriate.” She says he apologized to her and other university leaders.

“He has explained to us that 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,” she said.

U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) released a statement Wednesday calling for the professor’s termination:

“The University of Kansas must fire this professor immediately. Anyone who says that people who don’t vote for Kamala Harris should be ‘lined up and shot’ are completely deranged and shouldn’t be around students nor in academia. This promotion of political violence should be met with quick action by KU.”

Bichelmeyer says she hopes the incident allows for “an opportunity to reflect on” the topics of free speech, care and respect for others in civic engagement.

“The free expression of ideas is essential to the functioning of our university, and we fully support the academic freedom of our teachers as they engage in classroom instruction,” she said. “Academic freedom, however, is not a license for suggestions of violence like we saw in the video. While we embrace our university’s role as a place for all kinds of dialogue, violent rhetoric is never acceptable.”

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