A Housatonic Community College professor was placed on paid administrative leave after giving an apparent Nazi salute during a recent Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) system meeting.

Charles Meyrick, an assistant professor of business and economics, allegedly held up a Nazi salute for five to 10 minutes during the meeting led by a CSCU administrator on Nov. 2.

“The reports of a faculty member’s outburst at a meeting last week, including the use of a Nazi salute, which required campus police to respond are appalling and unacceptable,” CSCU system President Mark Ojakian said in a statement.

Once campus police responded, Meyrick reportedly ceased the salute, according to the Hartford Courant.

“A number of faculty and staff who were present have reached out to me describing how they felt violated, unsafe and shocked by what they experienced,” he went on. “This matter was immediately called to my attention and will be dealt with promptly and appropriately.”

The meeting, held at Manchester Community College, was said to focus on the alignment of curriculum across the 12 community colleges in the state, according to the Courant.

Ojakian’s “Student First” plan aims to consolidate functions in the 12 community colleges in the state. Originally, the CSCU system proposed a plan to consolidate the 12 community colleges into one which was not approved by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. The CSCU system is still pushing for an option to limit spending and consolidate the 12 community colleges in the state.

The incident occurred a week after Ojakian sent an email to faculty and administration in the CSCU system regarding “several upsetting incidents [which] occurred on our campuses and on social media that pushed beyond the limits of civil discourse.”

“I want to be clear there is a difference between our support of freedom of speech and our tolerance for behavior that is deliberately intended to trigger fear, incite violence or makes people feel uncomfortable or violated,” Ojakian said in the email.

The incident prompted an investigation and the professor is on leave pending the results, the Courant reported.

A spokesperson for the CSCU system shared that Meyrick is still on leave and there are no further updates as of Monday night.

“This does not fit with our community’s culture and values, we must hold ourselves to a higher standard of civility, decency and respect,” Ojakian said in the statement.

“My message is simple. We are better than this and must hold ourselves to a higher standard of civility,” Ojakian said in the statement. “We will address these incidents swiftly and forcefully and I ask all of you to stand up for the culture of respect we value at CSCU.”