Professor who suggested shooting men who wouldn’t vote for a female presidential candidate is leaving the 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 a video of the comments went viral.

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

The announcement was made on Friday. The university said in a statement that it is “working to find a new instructor to take responsibility for his courses, and we are working with the students affected by this change.”

In a video posted on X, Lowcock can be heard criticizing how some people would approach the election.

“There will be some men in our society who will refuse to vote for a potential female president because they believe women are not smart enough to be president,” he said. “We could line up all these guys and shoot them. You clearly don’t understand how the world works.”

Lowcock then appeared to regret his words, adding: “Did I say that? Delete that from the recording. I don’t want the deans to know I said that.”

The university confirmed that the video was educational material.

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

“He explained to us that his intention was to emphasize his advocacy for women’s rights and equality, and he recognizes that he has succeeded very poorly in this,” she said.

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

“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” is completely insane and should not be around students or in academia. The KU should counteract this promotion of political violence with quick measures.”

Bichelmeyer hopes the incident “provides an opportunity to reflect on the issues of freedom of expression, 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 the classroom,” she said. “However, academic freedom is not a license for threats of violence, as we saw in the video. While we support our university’s role as a place for dialogue of all kinds, violent rhetoric is never acceptable.”

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