CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — The Iowa Board of Regents is directing all three state universities to investigate alleged social media posts regarding the assassination of political activist Charlie Kirk made by school employees.

During a closed session on Wednesday, the Board of Regents voted to direct the University of Iowa, the University of Northern Iowa, and Iowa State University to investigate allegations of employees publishing controversial posts on social media about Kirks’ assassination.

The regents’ directives also include:

• Placing all employees subject to investigation on administrative leave or have them removed from classrooms
• Authorizing the presidents of each university to take immediate action up to and including termination of any employee found to have violated Board Policy, including Chapter 4.2
• Delegating authority to the Executive Director to direct the universities to open investigations into any future alleged violations, including placing employees on administrative leave

The investigations will focus on violations of Chapter 4.2 of the board’s policy, which according to the manual pertains to Freedom of Expression. The Chapter also addresses employee personal social media accounts. One portion reads:

Employees are free to express personal opinions on their personal social media accounts, consistent with the First Amendment and its application to public employees. When doing so, it is the employee’s responsibility to make clear that they are speaking in their private capacity and not on behalf of the University or the Board of Regents. However, under certain circumstances, the university may be obligated to act to prevent harm to the university, our campus community, and its mission. For instance, when an employee’s personal expression violates university policy, such as engaging in threatening or intimidating speech towards a co-worker, the university may be compelled to intervene to maintain a safe or efficient work environment.

The regents also directed the universities to complete the investigations within two weeks.

“We’ve seen some appalling things on social media in the last week, and we also understand that some appalling things are protected by the First Amendment,” Regent Robert Cramer said after the closed session. “So, the purpose of this is to delve in and to see if any of these cross the threshold to where they’re so disruptive to the university that they still need discipline in an employment sense. We also recognize that we treat students differently than employees and we’re not talking about punishing anyone for what they’ve said or posted, but we’re also not saying that there’s an absolute right to employment if that employee is disrupting the university.”

The Board of Regents aren’t the only academic entity investigating allegations of employees publishing controversial posts about Kirk’s death. Last week, the Oskaloosa Community School District announced it was investigating a teacher who allegedly made crude posts about the assassination. The Oskaloosa School Board is holding a special meeting Wednesday night to discuss the Superintendent’s recommendation to terminate a Continuing Contract Teacher.