AUSTIN, Texas — On Nov. 22, Parham Daghighi and Callie Kennedy, graduate student teaching assistants at UT Austin, had their employment terminated, effective immediately, by Dean Allan Cole of the Steve Hicks School of Social Work.

Daghighi and Kennedy offered a message of support to their students regarding the conflict of the war in Gaza.

The TAs have been relieved of their duties. According to a statement from Mike Rosen, assistant vice president for university communications, “both teaching assistants have been offered employment for the Spring 2024 semester.”

The University of Texas at Austin has also issued the following statement:

“The University supports our deans, administration, and faculty’s ability to ensure classroom communications meet our standards of professionalism and relate to the course at hand. Last week, leadership in the School of Social Work appropriately managed conduct by two teaching assistants who, while acting in their role as employees, unprofessionally misused the official University classroom communication platform to send a personal political message to the students in a course.

"This is inconsistent with the recent statements made by the teaching assistants, who now suggest their message was merely an attempt to share mental health resources and that the content of the message was related to the course.”

This is the message that the TAs sent to their students: