The faculty adviser for student group Youth for Western Civilization resigned Friday at the request of Chancellor Holden Thorp after joking in an e-mail that he had a gun and knew how to use it.
The e-mail came in response to brochures speaking out against YWC, a conservative group that garnered national attention when it hosted campus speakers on illegal immigration who were met with protests. The home address of Elliot Cramer, YWC's faculty adviser and a retired psychology professor, appeared on the brochures.
Senior Nikhil Patel, president of UNC's chapter of YWC, sent an e-mail to Cramer notifying him of the brochures.
Cramer replied to the e-mail, writing "I have a Colt 45 and I know how to use it. I used to be able to hit a quarter at 50 feet seven times out of 10." Cramer also sent his response to Thorp and Haley Koch, a senior who was arrested for protesting a YWC speech in April. Her case was dismissed Monday.
Thorp then contacted Cramer and asked him to resign from the faculty adviser position. He said Cramer's statement was "highly inappropriate and not consistent with the civil discourse we are trying to achieve."
"He said it was a joke, and I said, 'this just isn't something we joke about,'" Thorp said.
Cramer said he copied Thorp and Koch to the e-mail because he wanted them to be aware of the brochures with his address. He stressed his comments about the gun were a joke.
"Oh, of course it was a joke," Cramer said. "It's one thing to say that they simply ought to contact me, but to put my address is an implied threat."
Cramer, who has been retired for 15 years, added he no longer owns a Colt .45, but said he used to be a target shooter in college. He said he thinks he owns a .22 caliber.
