U of M nursing professor gets heat after tweet angers Mike Huckabee

Huckabee praised Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Zizelman for giving White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Huckabee’s daughter) his jacket in South Korea. Judy Cole, a nursing professor at U of M, responded, “If she froze to death, she wouldn’t be missed,†which has now been deleted along with her account.

Huckabee tweeted Cole back, saying he felt sorry for "such a hateful person" and the students she was teaching. 

“Poor woman makes Nurse Ratched look like Mother Teresa! How angry and bitter is a person who says that? Sad for your students and for you,†Huckabee tweeted. 

Steven J. Mulroy, associate dean of the U of M’s School of Law, said, social media allows an easier way for thoughts to be sent out to the world without reflection. 

“It’s more frequent for people getting in trouble for saying controversial, arguably offensive things like this [Cole’s tweet] because you just type the first thing that comes into your mind, and you send … then it’s too late to change your mind,†Mulroy said. 

Mulroy also said how the opinion is expressed is irrelevant because government employees have every right to say the same things about government as everyone does “without fear of being fired by the government.â€Â 

Although there can be extreme cases such as a professor saying things in his or her teaching, Mulroy said the university has the right to review a professor’s teachings, but they cannot fire her if she is only commenting on life like everyone else.

“The university is a public institution, and therefore, the First Amendment applies … you wouldn’t ordinarily take aversive action like that because of what a public employee says about a matter of public concern,†Mulroy said.

People tweeted in support of Huckabee, and some even encouraged the school to fire Cole. Twitter users took to the University of Memphis’ “Happy Veterans Day†tweet to address their concerns and questions about Cole. 

While some simply retweeted Huckabee’s tweet, others wrote their opinions of Cole and the school. 

“Meanwhile, you have a nurse that wishes death on another because she does not have her liberal political agenda,†Sallie Ellis (@Mwv03) tweeted. “Can’t believe you let this nurse instruct at your institution.â€

Social media can be an outlet for individuals to grow, but it can also cause individuals to be defined by their posts and tweets. In a 2016 survey, Pew Research Center found 34 percent of people used social media to take a mental health break, and 17 percent of people used it to build their personal relationships at work, which has its benefits and costs, according to the survey. 

Some 14 percent of workers have found information on social media has improved their professional opinion of a colleague — at the same time, a similar share, 16 percent, have found information on social media has lowered their professional opinion of a colleague, the survey reported.