Dr. Tamar Shirinian faces dismissal from her faculty position at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, over a private social media comment about Charlie Kirk. These termination proceedings represent a violation of the integrity of free speech.

Your support is crucial. Allowing this violation to stand threatens all of us -- an injury to one is an injury to all. We need to fight every instance of these actions to protect our institutions of higher education from unjust meddling by political power. Dangerous precedents have already been set by politically-motivated faculty terminations.

We cannot let this injustice go unchallenged .

Please donate today to help cover Dr. Shirinian's critical legal costs AND to send a message that our academic institutions cannot be undermined by political pressures.

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Note: this fundraiser is to cover costs already borne by Dr. Shirinian, from personal savings, for the initial appeal process. If Dr. Shirinian wins the lawsuit and recovers these legal costs, we will be paying donors back. Alternatively, in those cases of fully anonymous donations (see below) and if a donor chooses, we will donate those contributions to a legal defense fund to assist other faculty and academic workers targeted similarly across the nation.

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What else can I do?

• Join over 1,300 people and sign the petition to reinstate Dr. Shirinian.

• Inform yourself:

-- Tamar Shirinian sues University of Tennessee for suspending her after Charlie Kirk comment, Knox News, October 30, 2025. View here.

--Suspended professor appeals to Chancellor Donde Plowman with apology, explanation, Knox News, September 29, 2025. View here.

-- Chancellor: Professor's Charlie Kirk post 'harmed the reputation of the university, Knox News, September 23, 2025. View here.

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About anonymous donations: GoFundMe allows donors to publicly post their donations as anonymous, but the organizers (who do not include Tamar or her family) do see donor names.

If you would like to also remain anonymous to the organizers of this fundraiser, you can use SilentDonor to do so (yes, yet another website, sorry...).