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.

Republicans question Trump’s ‘privately funded’ ballroom after report points to taxpayer burden

WATCH: Unearthed video shows leftist Senate hopeful celebrating anti-fossil fuel group’s arrival in Texas

Delaware hospital shooting suspect identified, faces multiple charges including first-degree murder

Sick: PBS Bigwig Appears to Keep Job After Publicly Wishing Stroke on Trump in Deranged Birthday Message

Leftist Professor Goes Viral by Admitting the Hard Truth – Trump Has Destroyed Their Dreams and the Democratic Party Too

Judge reveals Luigi Mangione will pursue psychiatric defense in UnitedHealthcare CEO assassination case

12 Key Points on Iran Peace Deal Revealed, as Trump Says He’ll Likely Read It to Media So They Get It Right

Pentagon Sends Coast Guard to Rescue 2 Survivors After Latest Deadly Strike on Narco-Terrorists in Pacific

Oklahoma Democrats face runoff showdown in race for deep-red Senate seat

Deadly B-52 crash puts focus on engines, controllability as investigators hunt for answers

Trump says Senate hearing on DNI nominee is cancelled until US attorney replacement confirmed

Trump DNI pick braces for Senate grilling as temporary stand-in fuels Dem pressure

5 chilling details from the alleged White House attack plot tied to UFC event

Netanyahu’s relationship with Trump becomes baggage in reelection campaign

Canadian tourism to US begins to rebound after 51st state, tariffs debacle

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.