Travis Meade, a lecturer at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Central Florida, is said to have been fired following allegations of an affair with his teaching assistant (TA), referred to online as “Hello Kitty TA.”
The rumors and controversy surfaced in the media after one of the users of the UCF subreddit posted a question that read,
Why was Professor Meade fired? Just curious if anyone knows the actual reason cause I have heard a few rumors and I wanna know what happened.
Many of the thread’s comments claimed that Meade allegedly had an inappropriate relationship with his TA, reportedly named Kaylee, leading him to depart from his position at UCF. Reports claim pictures of Meade and the TA walking hand-in-hand also went viral after somebody uploaded them to Imgur.
a UCF comp sci professor was let go after his TA (and girlfriend maybe???) left hello kitty coloring book pages saying Happy Birthday Daddy on his office door LMAO pic.twitter.com/g7LxZx3mp2
— starsleeps (@starsleeps) October 24, 2024
Although the subreddit post has now been deleted, this is not preventing the gossip from swirling around the Internet.
Meanwhile, the alleged affair between Travis and his TA is taking over Twitter, as many have shared and re-shared, interpreting the matter in their own way.
On October 24, 2024, a Twitter user named Starsleeps wrote,
a UCF comp sci professor was let go after his TA (and girlfriend maybe???) left hello kitty coloring book pages saying Happy Birthday Daddy on his office door LMAO
Likewise, another tweeted, writing,
A UCF professor was fired for dating his TA, she apparently would color hello kitty coloring pages for him and tape them onto his door
Via Twitter
One step forward, a Twitter user, Duran, asserts that UCF’s professor Meade and the ‘Hello Kitty Girl’ were fiancees. The post he shared claims that Meade’s TA is Russian with BPD and also has a fiancee.
For those at UCF, To clear up some details. Yes that's the Hello Kitty girl and Professor Meade's engagement photo and Yea that's her talking shit about him on discord pic.twitter.com/n9jB5v6cBh
— Duran (@DuranRaramuri) October 24, 2024
Further, a Twitter user @yvessaintyeon shared a tweet stating, “who else trying to rock the ucf computer science professor x hello kitty girl ta merch,” and referring to this tweet, a reddit user named Mysterious-Second-83 dragged the matter to the broad reddit discussion once again, where commentator repeats the same information that many sources are reporting.
But that fact is that all this ongoing gossip regarding the alleged affair of UCF’s professor, Travis Meade, has yet to be authenticated. As of now, neither the college administration nor the professor himself has officially addressed it.
However, amidst all these controversies, a good thing regarding Travis Meade is making its way to the media. Some of his students are rating him as an excellent professor on the website Rate My Professor, though his assignments were tough.
On the website, one of Meade’s students wrote,
I enjoyed this class a lot. If you’ve heard that Meade’s classes are fast-paced, you’d be correct, but it wasn’t so fast that it was stressful. There are easy quizzes and very complicated homework assignments weekly. He goes over exams in detail. He has massive curves, grade drops and an extra credit assignment. He wants you to succeed ask for help
Via RMP
Likewise, another stated,
Not easy if you had a rough intro to c but it IS doable. + Him and his TAs are really helpful in office hours
Well, these positive comments could assist Travis Meade in dealing with all these unverified and harsh allegations and criticism coming from all around.
In Case You Didn’t Know
- According to his now-nonfunctioning LinkedIn account, Travis Meade started his career as a Research Assistant at the Institution for Stimulation and Training in August 2013.
- In his decade-long career, he has also been a Graduate Teaching Assistant, Graduate Research Assistant, and Adjunct Instructor.
- He completed his undergraduate degree in mathematics in 2012 and PhD in Computer Science in 2017, both from UCF.
