'A lot to handle': Ohio professor at center of TikTok controversy speaks out

Melanie Rose Nipper never thought she'd be at the center of a TikTok controversy.

The adjunct professor in the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies department at the University of Cincinnati is the former instructor of Olivia Krolczyk. Krolczyk is the student who created a viral TikTok in which she denounced her professor (unnamed in the video) for giving her a failing grade on an assignment because Krolczyk used the term "biological women."

The video has been covered by the New York Post, News Nation and Fox News, the incident offering a platter of America's culture war issues: transgender rights, free speech and "leftist" professors.

In an interview with The Enquirer at a cafe in the city's Oakley neighborhood, Nipper said she cried when she watched the video and saw the ensuing publicity.

"It's a lot, right?" Nipper said. "It's a lot to handle."

In the TikTok, Krolczyk alleged that she was given a failing grade on a proposal for her Gender in Pop Culture course. She planned to write a paper in which she would argue that trans athletes competing in women's sports were taking opportunities away from "biological women."

Nipper confirmed the sequence of events Krolczyk shared, saying the assignment was one part of a three-part project, and her review of the idea and Krolczyk's language was a routine element of her duties as a professor. "Every final project proposal has to be approved by the instructor," she said.

Eventually, according to Nipper, Krolczyk asked to focus on a different topic, with Nipper even offering to extend the deadline.

'Unacceptable based on the community'

Afterward, Nipper was informed by the Office of Gender Equity & Inclusion that Krolcyek had submitted a Freedom of Speech claim, which is a complaint any student may submit if they believe a faculty member violated the University of Cincinnati's Free Speech policy.

Asked about the investigation into Krolczyk complaint, Bleuzette Marshall, vice president of Equity, Inclusion & Community Impact at UC, responded: "We don't comment on active investigations, but thank you for your inquiry."

Although Nipper said she agrees classrooms should be places for debate and discussion, that ends when "you are, intentionally or unintentionally, participating in a systemic harm of some kind." She cited transphobia and white supremacy as examples.

Similar incidents had occurred in the past, said Nipper, who has taught at UC since 2021. When a student uses "an outdated terminology," Nipper said she feels it is necessary to correct those mistakes. "Not a zero for the course," Nipper clarified, "a zero for an assignment."

"I will happily regrade," Nipper said. "You are not going to have any late penalties."

But always, Nipper said, she underlines why a rewrite is necessary.

"This is unacceptable based on the community, the marginalized individuals that are at stake, and also the foundations of the course."

Labeled a 'woke mob professor'

Studies about trans athletes have yielded different results.

"Transwoman Elite Athletes: Their Extra Percentage Relative to Female Physiology," published by University of Otago professor Alison Heather last year, referred to "inherent male physiological advantages that lead to superior athletic performance."

After the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports reviewed all scientific literature published between 2011 and 2021 in English documenting trans participation in athletics, they found that "available evidence indicates trans women who have undergone testosterone suppression have no clear biological advantages over cis women in elite sport."

Conservative commentators have used Krolczyk's story to further amplify arguments about transgender athletes, and the perceived liberal elitism in colleges. "The left forces you to obey them," read the chyron below Fox News anchor Jesse Watters before his interview with Krolczyk. The website OutKick labeled Nipper a "woke mob professor," while the Washington Free Beacon contended, "It's the latest example of leftist politics in the nation's schools."

Terms like 'biological female' are rejected by the major medical groups representing doctors and psychiatrists. Gender is part of a spectrum, and goes beyond biology, those groups argue.

All of this is taking place as lawmakers have started pushing bills to counteract what they see as liberal ideology on college campuses. Ohio's Senate Bill 83, for example, requires colleges to "not endorse or oppose, as an institution, any controversial belief or policy."

Nipper repeatedly mentioned SB 83, saying it, coupled with increased anti-academia discourse, has created a "chilling effect," and limits the future "other academics, friends, peers that I've had from a variety of different cohorts, feel they'll be able to have in this country."

"We've seen historically in other countries what happens when laws like this can take effect. The way that they are connected to larger societal, cultural movements towards authoritarianism," Nipper said.

Asked whether she would have still earned her degree and gone into teaching knowing today's political environment, Nipper didn't hesitate. "Yeah. Because it's important.

"Not all students feel seen in academia. And that's really the effort of WGSS (Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies) classes, to have your students feel seen, the marginalized ones in particular, and feel respected."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio professor speaks out after viral TikTok on failed assignment