policy & reform
campusreview.com.au
Mind your language
Duke University, North Carolina, USA.
Backlash after US professor
cautions students against
speaking Chinese.
By Dallas Bastian
A
US director of graduate studies
has obliged with Duke University’s
request for her to step down from
her position after two emails she penned to
students leaked online.
Screenshots of the emails – through
which Megan Neely, assistant professor with
the Master of Biostatistics program, urged
Chinese speakers to solely use English in
study areas and break rooms – were posted
to Twitter late last week and later confirmed
to be accurate by Duke University.
In the first email posted, Neely said faculty
members had approached her for the names
of students who they observed “speaking
Chinese (in their words, VERY LOUDLY)”
in common areas. She said the faculty
members wanted the students’ details so
they could “remember them if the students
ever interviewed for an internship or asked to
work with them for a master’s project”.
“They were disappointed that these
students were not taking the opportunity
to improve their English and were being so
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impolite as to have a conversation that not
everyone on the floor could understand,”
Neely wrote, before urging students to
keep “unintended consequences in mind”
when choosing to speak Chinese in the
university building.
“I have no idea how hard it has been and
still is for you to come to the US and have
to learn in a non-native language. As such,
I have the upmost [sic] respect for what you
are doing,” Neely added. “That being said, I
encourage you to commit to using English
100 per cent of the time when you are in
Hock or any other professional setting.”
She signed off by saying she was copying
in second-year students as “a reminder
given they are currently applying for jobs”.
Those sentiments were echoed in an
earlier email, dredged up from February
2018. In it, Neely again said speaking
Chinese in common areas might make
it harder for students to land research
opportunities.
Concerned Duke students started a
petition not long after the first email was
uploaded. In an attached statement, those
who drafted it said the incident could open
up a larger discussion about diversity and
inclusion of international students in the
Duke community, noting students signed
the petition alongside personal accounts of
other cases of cultural insensitivity.
One poster was quoted as saying:
“[T]his is not even the only incident of
xenophobia towards Chinese internationals
by Duke officials in the past few months.
This is clearly behaviour that has become
normalised for many in the administration.”
The dean of Duke University’s School
of Medicine, Mary Klotman, sent out an
apology the same day the initial email was
posted online.
Klotman wrote: “To be clear: there is
absolutely no restriction or limitation on
the language you use to converse and
communicate with each other. Your career
opportunities and recommendations
will not in any way be influenced by the
language you use outside the classroom.
And your privacy will always be protected.”
In the email, she also confirmed that
Neely was asked to step down as director of
graduate studies for the master’s program.
“We will always be committed to
ensuring that you are welcomed and
included in every aspect of university life,”
she also wrote.
“Sadly, this matter demonstrates that we
must continue to work on overcoming
deep-seated concerns about our cultural
awareness and understanding.”
Klotman asked the Office of Institutional
Equity to conduct a thorough review of the
program in response to the emails. ■