Duke University tutor steps down after row over ‘impolite’ Chinese students not speaking English on campus
- Director of masters’ programme slammed on social media after passing on comments from her colleagues about ‘loud’ conversation in communal lounge
- Dean of medical school tells students there is ‘absolutely no restriction or limitation on the language you use to converse or communicate with each other’
A university professor in the United States has stepped down as director of a master’s degree programme after leaked emails showed her asking Chinese students to “commit to using English” and suggesting that not doing so might harm their careers.
Screenshots of the messages sent by Megan Neely, the former director of graduate studies for a biostatistics course at Duke University in North Carolina, went viral on Twitter and its Chinese equivalent, Weibo, on Saturday as users criticised her for being xenophobic and insensitive.
In the latest email, Neely said faculty members had complained to her after overhearing international students speaking Chinese “very loudly” in the student lounge areas.
“They were disappointed that these students were not taking the opportunity to improve their English and were being so impolite as to have a conversation that not everyone on the floor could understand,” it said.
“Both faculty members replied that they wanted to write down the names so they could remember them if the students ever interviewed for an internship or asked to work with them for a master’s project.”
Mary Klotman, dean of Duke Medical School, which oversees the biostatistics course, said in a separate email to students that Neely had stepped down as director of graduate studies for the master’s programme and that the university’s management had been asked to undertake an internal review.
