BOCA RATON, Fla. — Nearly four months after being placed on paid administrative leave, Florida Atlantic University English professor Dr. Kate Polak is speaking publicly for the first time, sitting down with WPTV’s Michael Hoffman.
Polak was one of three FAU professors placed on leave in September following social media posts made around the time of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Two of the professors — both tenured — have since been reinstated. Polak, who is not tenured, remains barred from campus with no decision announced about her future.
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“I love my job,” Polak said in an exclusive interview with WPTV. “I was thrilled to land here because the student body is incredible.”
Polak has taught English at FAU for six years. Since September, she has been off campus and under investigation by the university for posts she made on her personal social media accounts.
“It was initially surprising,” Polak said. “It has gotten less surprising with time.”
Polak said she stayed silent for months but decided to speak now because her employment status remains unresolved.
“Because I don’t yet have my job back,” she said. “Unfortunately, my mere existence seems to be threatening to some people.”
Polak shared with Hoffman the posts at the center of the university’s investigation.
One post referenced her reaction to police response during an ICE protest on campus prior to Kirk’s assassination. In that post, Polak wrote that the FAU administration “treated us like enemies today,” adding that the officers “looked like small men as did the men who sent them.”
Another post was a response on Threads to a user who suggested starting a GoFundMe to buy a beer for a man seen celebrating Kirk’s assassination seconds after it occurred. Polak replied, “Same.”
Polak said she believes the disciplinary action is tied to those posts and her presence at a protest that she says was unpopular with university leadership.
“I believe it is solely because I attended a protest that was unpopular with administration, and because I was insufficiently mournful,” she said.
While Polak says she regrets offending people, she also says she believed her social media accounts were private and never intended her political views to affect students.
“I’m humiliated in some ways that any of my political opinions were outed to them,” Polak said. “I take great lengths to conceal that from them, because I don’t ever want them thinking that I’m judging them differently. They’re judged based on the rubric, which doesn’t have any political dimension.”
Unlike the other two professors who were reinstated, Polak is not tenured. She is currently working under a contract set to expire this summer.
“I believe that they are going to move to non-renew my contract in the summer, specifically as a means of disciplining me, without going on record as disciplining me,” Polak said.
Hoffman reached out to Florida Atlantic University for an update on the investigation and to ask whether the university plans to end Polak’s contract.
In a statement, a university spokesperson said, “The university does not comment on pending personnel matters.”
Polak says she hopes to return to the classroom but remains uncertain about what comes next.
