A Creighton Professor, Dr. Fidel Fajardo-Acosta, has recently come under attack of the media and members of the Creighton community. An extra credit question was posed at the end of his final exam, featuring answers that poked fun at Presidential Candidate Donald Trump. Some students were seemingly offended by this joke, and proceeded to document the question in a picture, and post the evidence to an online forum, Hypeline, sponsored by a proposed Creighton student group, Turning Point USA.

This incident has rapidly spread to various media outlets, including Fox News. Many of the outlets are deeming this as an attack on certain political ideologies, and shaming the face of Creighton University. Due to this attention, Dr. Acosta has received countless threats, attacking his professionality and credibility. Unfortunately, these responses have escalated to racial slurs.

We do not question the particular student's right to be offended. However, we do question how this situation was handled. Though the joke about Mr. Trump may have been in poor taste, this action does not justify hateful threats nor racist criticism. Unfortunately, this unwanted attention was garnered due to the lack of proper procedure by the offended students, instead of taking this complaint to a proper outlet, such as the Department of English, Office of Equity and Inclusion or the Vice Provost for Academic Administration or Student Life. Due to the poor and unprofessional handling of this situation, a professor's position and career has been called to question.

Students are currently unaware of the University policies concerning this incident, or any potential action to discipline Dr. Acosta. Dr. Acosta has been an especially influential professor to many students and is a vital member of the Creighton community. We stand with Dr. Acosta and urge Creighton University to refrain from discipline, and continue to protect the professor from unsafe threats.  ‪#‎StandWithAcosta‬