ABOVE: Duke University Chapel
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Duke University professor Megan Neely sent an email last week to her program’s first and second year students asking them to “commit to using English 100% of the time” in professional settings, according to news reports.
The backlash was swift and Neely has since apologized and stepped down as director of graduate studies for the biostatistics department. She will remain an assistant professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics.
In her email, Neely wrote that other faculty members had approached her with complaints about students speaking Chinese “VERY LOUDLY” in study areas. The unnamed faculty members also requested 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.
“They were disappointed that these students were not taking the opportunity to improve their English and were being so impolite as to have ...
