NYU Cancels Former New Yorker Fact-Checker Talia Lavin’s Journalism Class

New York University has canceled an undergraduate journalism class that former New Yorker fact-checker Talia Lavin was scheduled to teach this fall after only two students signed up.

The decision to hire Lavin to teach the elective, “Reporting on the Far Right,” had drawn criticism since she resigned her New Yorker position last June after falsely accusing an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent of having a Nazi tattoo.

Adam Penenberg, director of undergraduate studies at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, said that low enrollment forced him to cancel the class. “Canceling the class had nothing to do with Talia’s writings, tweets, or anything else. We cancelled it because too few students enrolled,” Penenberg added.

Lavin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

NYU journalism electives are capped at 15 students, though the department has run courses with as few as eight students under certain circumstances.

Penenberg also said it was unlikely his department would invite Lavin back. “It would make no sense to try it again, given how few students expressed interest,” he said. “We have no plans to offer Talia another course, simply because her main focus (and the focus of her upcoming book) is the far right.”

Lavin’s official NYU faculty bio — which lauded her as an expert in “far-right extremism and social justice” — was removed sometime around April 20, 2019, according to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

WATCH: Hearing turmoil as Jasmine Crockett unloads on MLK’s niece in wild racially-charged rant

Nancy Mace Announces Next Career Move After Losing South Carolina Gov. Primary

Karmelo Anthony isolated in jail as track meet killer appeals conviction, preps for prison stint

Video: Infuriated by Immigrant’s Attempted Beheading, Irish Citizens Set Fires Across Belfast

Obama-appointed judge with ties to anti-Trump conspiracy theory hit with misconduct complaint

Pregnant mother found murdered in Mexico as frantic search for missing children ends with surprise discovery

Senate Democrats urge a reluctant party to embrace Platner

First on Fox: Trump admin opens new front in fraud crackdown targeting health insurers, drug middlemen

God Help Us: Donations Continued to Roll in for Karmelo Anthony After He Was Convicted of Murder

GRAPHIC LANGUAGE: ‘This Is a War,’ ‘Both … Brothers Should Be Dead!’ – Chilling Videos from Karmelo Anthony Supporters Outside Courthouse

Trump concession breathes new life into stalled FISA spy powers deal

Jimmy Kimmel trolls Spencer Pratt with U-Haul after primary loss, and Pratt responds

UK’s terrorism watchdog admits Trump administration may be right about migration being a national security issue

Former Louisiana mayor gets jail time for sex with son’s teen friend at house party

Cardi B’s reaction to Karmelo Anthony verdict draws millions of views and fierce criticism

In her original course, Lavin promised a fulsome exploration of the “far right,” saying she would show students how to track and identify online extremism.

“In an era when hate is on the rise, this course will provide student journalists with a thorough grounding in far-right and white-supremacist movements in the United States, briefly examining their history and delving into their sprawling present incarnations,” reads a now deleted course description, which also promised “a careful analysis of pieces that have fallen short of the mark.”

Lavin’s three-year career as a fact checker at The New Yorker was derailed last June after she tweeted an accusation that Justin Gaertner, a wheelchair-bound ICE agent, of sporting a Nazi Iron Cross tattoo over his left elbow. She later deleted the tweet and apologized after learning the tattoo represented a Maltese Cross, a symbol commonly used by members of the U.S. Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Though the original misleading tweet was only up for a short time, Lavin earned a public rebuke from both ICE and her employer that led to her voluntary resignation.