Chinese official criticizes Duke email that asked students to only speak English
The Chinese government has weighed in on a Duke University assistant professor’s provincial email pronouncement that students in her department should speak only English while in the building that houses their program.
“If a Chinese university required that American students not use English to communicate, I think this would not be normal,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Tuesday when asked about the controversial email, according to the Associated Press. Shuang was speaking at his daily press briefing in Beijing.
Duke recently opened a liberal arts and research university in China, Duke Kunshan University, that is a joint project with Wuhan University. It accepted its first class of graduate students and undergraduate exchange students in August 2014, and launched its four-year undergraduate degree program in August 2018, according to its website. The school says its first class consists of students from 27 countries, most of them from China and the U.S.
Megan Neely, an assistant professor in Duke’s department of biostatistics and bioinformatics, created a stir on campus and beyond when she cautioned international graduate students via email Friday that they could hamper their academic and professional advancement opportunities if they continued to speak only in their native language at school and other professional settings.
Neely had sent a similar email last year.
Neely wrote in the email Friday that two Duke faculty members had approached her and asked to see photos of students. She shared photos, she said, and the faculty members identified a group of first-year students they said had been talking very loudly in Chinese in the student lounge and study areas.
“Both faculty members replied that they wanted to write down the names so they could remember them if the students ever interviewed for an internship or asked to work with them for a master’s project,” Neely wrote in the email. “They were disappointed that these students were not taking the opportunity to improve their English and were being so impolite as to have a conversation that not everyone on the floor could understand.”
The email was widely shared and generated a backlash on campus. International student groups, including Duke’s Asian Students Association and the Duke International Association used social media to say that the email reflected a discriminatory attitude.
On Saturday, Neely asked to step down from her position as the department’s director of graduate studies, though she remains on the faculty. Dr. Mary Klotman, the medical school dean, apologized to students in the program and said there was no restriction on students’ using foreign languages in conversations with one another.
Duke said Monday the university’s Office of Institutional Equity has been asked to conduct a review of the biostatistics master’s program and recommend ways to improve the learning environment for all students.
The program has 54 students, about two-thirds of whom are Chinese.
Also drawing concern are Facebook posts from a top Duke leader about China last year that some viewed as offensive.
In December, the Duke Chronicle reported that Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs at Duke, had posted a series of photos on Facebook from a trip to China with comments that drew ire from Duke’s Asian students. The first post, the Chronicle said, depicted two bags of Lays potato chips, one with a flavor of Mexican Tomato Chicken flavor and another with Italian Red Meat flavor, with the caption “Reason to move to China … NOT!”
Moneta made two more posts, one showing a measurement of Kunshan’s air quality and the other showing a squat toilet, the Chronicle said, with similar captions. Afterward, Moneta told the Chronicle he put his Facebook account on hold so he could reflect on his social media presence.
This story was originally published January 29, 2019 at 11:52 AM with the headline "Chinese official criticizes Duke email that asked students to only speak English."
