A week after the Office of Civil Rights found UNC-CH lecturer Elyse Crystall has discriminated against and harassed a student in her class for being a white male, Judith Wegner, chairman of the Faculty Council at UNC-Chapel Hill, wrote a blistering letter to the editor of The Daily Tar Heel.
Professor’s conduct was inexcusable, unprofessional shouts the headline of Wegner’s letter. Here are some excerpts:
? “Professors have ethical obligations to their students. We are duty-bound to teach knowledgeably, respectfully and effectively. We also function as role models whose actions have powerful symbolic significance.”
? “It’s not a question of First Amendment rights … It’s about impeding student learning, burdening their growing self-concept as scientists and undercutting their joyful struggle to engage in new ideas and challenges ? whatever their gender, viewpoint or personal attributes.”
? “It’s about whether one’s department needs to rearrange teaching assignments because students avoid classes taught by professors whose judgment they distrust.”
? “It’s about being an ethical professional”
? “It’s about cleaning up messes caused by behavior that can’t be justified, explained or excused. It’s good to know that everyone understands that it’s time to get on with that work.”
Trouble is, Wegner’s letter is about a chemistry professor who allowed his home to be used as a site for a Playboy magazine “Girls of the ACC” photo shoot.
What Wegner’s had to say about Crystall has been far more circumspect than this fiery rhetoric against what a professor did in his home. Of Crystall, whose viciousness had direct impact on the classroom, and in light of the OCR report, Wegner had this to say: “The teacher made a mistake.” In the DTH, she reiterated, “People make mistakes.” In the News & Observer, she said, “Teachers can make mistakes, and so can other people, so I think there have been some lessons learned.”
So when a teacher sexually and racially discriminates against and harasses a white male student (for those were the OCR’s findings) ? who most certainly did not expect or agree to such treatment beforehand, well, that’s just a “mistake.” But when a teacher opens his home to a Playboy shoot involving female students ? who most certainly did expect and agree to it beforehand ? that’s unethical “behavior that can’t be justified, explained or excused” that furthermore “undercut[s students’] joyful struggle to engage in new ideas and challenges ? whatever their gender, viewpoint or personal attributes.”
I’m not excusing the chemistry professor, whose judgment leaves him open to criticism. But I wonder why Wegner is excusing the far, far worse offender, and I can’t help thinking the Faculty Council chairman’s attitude is part of the problem, helping to create the atmosphere that led Crystall to act the way she did and still think it was justified.
