University of Georgia mathematics professor Joseph Fu is requiring students to wear masks in his classroom in defiance of university policy, telling CNN’s Pamela Brown that he was willing to be fired over the issue.

Brown reported that UGA policy was to allow professors to request masks, but did not allow them to require students to wear them. “You’ve been warned could you face disciplinary action,” she asked Fu. “Are you willing to be fired over this?”

“Certainly,” he replied, calling it a “responsibility” that he felt that he had as a tenured professor. “I’m a person who’s quite privileged in this setting. I feel that, as a tenured professor, I have a responsibility to my institution, not simply to my bosses, to act in its interest.”