Community Values, Academic Responsibility and Campus Safety

September 14, 2026

Dear Members of the CMU Community:

We are writing to share details of a situation that goes to the heart of faculty responsibility, academic standards and the trust that is foundational to our institutional mission. On Friday, Sept. 11, we became aware of hostile and threatening social media posts by Dr. Uju Anya, a faculty member in the department of Languages, Cultures & Applied Linguistics (LCAL) in our Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Dr. Anya is on voluntary professional leave through summer 2027 and is not teaching classes for CMU this academic year.

In her social media posts, Dr. Anya repeatedly and prominently invoked her connection to Carnegie Mellon and implied support from university colleagues, blurring the line between personal expression and academic authority. In her posts, she used expletives, racial slurs and derogatory language that demeaned, dehumanized and intimidated.

Carnegie Mellon University is a place where rigorous inquiry, freedom of expression and mutual respect must coexist. We take that responsibility seriously and we strongly reject language that is hateful and disparages or calls for the harm of others. Such rhetoric is inconsistent with the dignity, respect and responsibility that we expect from one another. Dr. Anya’s choice of language violates our shared community standards and distracts from the seriousness and significance of CMU’s scholarship in the humanities and social sciences.

This weekend, we met with Dietrich College leadership, including Dean Cassidy Sugimoto, and LCAL faculty as well as Faculty Senate leadership. In these discussions, Interim Department Head Adam van Compernolle heard from colleagues, who described “a sense of fear for our personal safety on and off campus.” These colleagues also spoke of being doxxed and receiving an influx of threatening messages that leave them feeling distressed and unsafe. As always, the safety and well-being of the university community is a top priority. CMU Police continue to monitor the situation closely, and they have not identified any credible threats to campus.

In an email to the Dietrich College community, Dean Cassidy Sugimoto and von Compernolle referenced LCAL’s policy on Community Responsibilities, adopted by department vote in 2024, which outlines expectations for how members of the department should communicate, especially in cases of differences of opinion. To cite the policy directly, the department “does not tolerate harassment, discrimination or disrespect in any form. This applies equally to our on-campus communications as well as to our personal off-campus communications where there is a reasonable perception or expectation that we are acting as representatives of LCAL, Dietrich College, and/or Carnegie Mellon University.”

While university policy prohibits us from sharing information about personnel matters, we are taking swift action in accordance with our processes. We continue to prioritize support for impacted community members, including our students.

We recognize freedom of expression and academic freedom as essential to our mission. These freedoms allow for ideas to be debated, tested and challenged. At the same time, these freedoms do not relieve any member of our community from their responsibility to support a respectful, safe and welcoming campus environment. Achieving and maintaining this balance is both challenging and the daily work of a university community.

Even in the midst of a toxic and divisive online culture, we must hold Carnegie Mellon University to a higher standard — one that rejects intimidation and hate in all forms.

Sincerely,

Farnam Jahanian
President
Henry L. Hillman President’s Chair

James H. Garrett Jr.
Provost and Chief Academic Officer