Push to Reinstate Dixie State Theater Professor

Many students, alumni and fellow faculty members are rallying behind Varlo Davenport, who has been removed as a theater professor at Dixie State University, The Spectrum reported. The spark for his removal was an in-class incident in which he restrained a female student to demonstrate what he was encouraging her to do in acting. She filed a sexual assault claim. While a faculty panel backed Davenport and said he should return to teaching, the university is refusing to do so, citing an ongoing (but only vaguely described) criminal investigation of Davenport. He says he hasn't been told of such an investigation.