Duke University moved quickly
on Monday to offer apologies, launch an investigation and reassure a core group
of graduate scholars after a medical school administrator sent an email warning
Chinese students to speak in English.
Outcry mounted after an email sent on Friday by Megan
Neely, who teaches in the biostatistics master’s degree.
Neely’s email to 50 biostatistics students said two
faculty members approached her to complain about students speaking Chinese in a
common area. She wrote that both were disappointed the students weren’t working
to improve their English and wanted their names. The email urged international
students to “keep these unintended consequences in mind when you choose to
speak in Chinese in the building”.
Over the weekend, screenshots of the emails got scores
of views and angry comments on social media networks in the US and China.
The Duke Asian Students Association issued a statement
slamming Neely’s emails as discriminatory and harmful.
Amid the angry response, Neely stepped down as the
program’s director of graduate studies, according to a letter from Dr Mary
Klotman, the medical school dean.
Klotman apologized to students in the program in her
letter, saying there was no restriction on using foreign languages in
conversations.
Neely, who remains an assistant professor, also
apologized in an email to program members, saying: “I deeply regret the hurt my
email has caused. It was not my intention.”
“Duke’s
engagement with China, with Chinese students and with Chinese scholars is
broad, deep and longstanding,” the Duke vice-president for public affairs,
Michael Schoenfeld, said in an interview on Monday.
“We deeply regret that this particular incident might
have compromised the very valuable and mutually beneficial relationship that
Duke has with its Chinese students.”
Across all of Duke’s graduate and professional
programs, 1,300 of about 8,500 students come from China. Thirty-six of the 55
students in the biostatistics master’s degree program are from China, and
Chinese scholars represent one-fifth of the program’s approximately 50 faculty
members.
International students are particularly attractive to
US graduate programs because many countries abroad place more emphasis on math
and science education, and because foreign students with the means to study in
the US often can pay full tuition rather than seek financial assistance, said
Scott Jaschik, the editor of Inside Higher Ed. He commended Duke for moving
quickly to investigate, but added the school’s reputation could still suffer. “There
is a quite a grapevine of information about international students back home- You
can be sure people will hear about this,” he said in an interview.
Chi Liu, who’s from China’s Human province and is pursuing
a chemistry PhD at Duke, said the university can maintain a good reputation
abroad if it shows it’s taking the situation seriously. Liu believes Duke
should fire Neely and the two unnamed faculty members who complained to her.
“All of us are angry. We feel offended,” he said,
referring to the reaction among students from China. “You have this email to
the Chinese students saying ... if you speak Chinese you will be remembered and
identified, and that will affect your performance. That is very serious.”
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