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In January of this year, Megan Neely, the director of Duke University’s biostatistics master’s program, made international headlines after urging students not to speak Chinese to one another while in the building where the program is housed. Two other faculty members had complained to her about hearing students speaking Chinese “very loudly,” she wrote in an email to students in the program, and had asked to see photos of the program’s students so they could remember them in future internship interviews or if they asked to work with them on master’s projects. Neely warned the group to “keep these unintended consequences in mind when you choose to speak in Chinese in the building.” Once public, the email drew widespread condemnation, including from China’s foreign minister. Neely soon apologized and stepped down as program director, although she remains on Duke’s faculty.
You can’t prohibit people during ...
