Megan Neely, an assistant professor and former director of graduate studies for a biostatistics course at Duke University in North Carolina, was demoted after emails in which she urged foreign students to speak English instead of their native language were leaked to the public.
In these emails, Neely claimed that two faculty members complained to her about international students speaking Chinese "very loudly" in the student lounge areas, and expressed their disappointment over the fact 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".
"To international students, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep these unintended consequences in mind when you choose to speak in Chinese in the building," Neely wrote, noting that faculty members wanted to write down the names of the students so they could remember them "if the students ever interviewed for an internship or asked to work with them for a masters project".
In response to this development, the dean of Duke Medical School, which oversees the biostatistics course, said that Neely is no longer a director of a master’s degree program, adding that the university was asked to conduct an internal review of this matter.
"I understand that many of you felt hurt and angered by this message. To be clear: there is absolutely no restriction or limitation on the language you use to converse or communicate with each other. Your career opportunities and recommendations will not in any way be influenced by the language you use outside the classroom," the dean said in an email.
This incident apparently did not sit well with many social media users, complaining about the way the university is handling this matter.
Some, however, appeared to share Neely’s sentiment.
And according to South China Morning Post, Neely’s emails also generated a lot of negative feedback on Chinese social media network Weibo, where hashtag “Duke University bans speaking Chinese” had been read more than 6.7 million times.
"I think this professor’s conduct might actually have been well intended, but it is those two complaining faculty staff who are the real racists," the author of a top-rated comment quoted by the newspaper remarked.