June Y. Chu, the Dean of Pierson College, one of Yale’s residential colleges, was placed on leave a month ago after her rude and inappropriate Yelp reviews came to light. Yale announced that she has permanently left the position. Chu officially resigned, but this resignation undoubtedly wouldn’t have happened had she not written the offensive Yelp Reviews.
Chu’s problems began when the Yale News published screenshots of her Yelp reviews. Chu wrote, among other things, these things:
- I guess if you were a white person who has no clue what mochi is, this would be fine for you.
- To put it quite simply: if you are white trash, this is the perfect night out for you!
After these reviews came to light, Chu apologized saying, “My remarks were wrong.There are no two ways about it. Not only were they insensitive in matters related to class and race; they demean the values to which I hold myself and which I offer as a member of this community.”
To keep reading, click here: Yale Dean Just Lost Her Job for Rude Yelp Reviews
I am supremely fortunate in this regard. When I was twelve or so I got caught passing a note in class the note was about a boy I liked. The teacher made me read it aloud to the class. (While I’m sure this punishment wouldn’t be allowed today, 50 years ago it was common.)
Later, when discussing this episode with my dad, he gave me a piece of advice I’ve never forgotten: Never put anything in writing you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of the LA Timess tomorrow morning.
I’ve always remembered that incident; embarrassment is a powerful teacher. Better to learn it as a child than as a dean at Yale!
People seriously don’t get this. I have a rule and that is I always comment under my real name. It keeps me from thinking that I’m anonymous.
I had a pen pal in grammar school. My mom taught me the same lesson, to never put anything in writing that you wouldn’t want to come back to you. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from its consequences.
I’ve fallen into the “Facebook zone” myself – where I become so immersed in what your’e reading and in others’ comments that you just start typing without thinking. Lots of people become “zombified” when they are using social media and almost forget that what they post can and will be seen by the rest of the real world. It’s a weird phenomenon that I think will only get worse as we increase our use of social media.
But still it’s no excuse for taking a leave of your senses and posting something inflammatory. Your responsibilities and your reputation don’t magically disappear when you log on.
I think that if the reviews had been nasty but not racist, she probably would have gotten by, but I’d hate to be a student needing her help after reading that.
Exactly. There is no doubt that the racism and classism is what got her. I can’t imagine any student of any race going to her if they were in school on a scholarship since Poor = trash according to her.
Actually, the comments quoted in the article were not the only ones that formed the basis of her firing. However, they are representative of the snobby, exclusionary, tone of the others.
This is true. She had a bunch more. Not the type of person you’d want advising college students.
A good moral case can be made that employers generally ought not punish their employees for political commentary not connnected with the workplace. But I don’t think this principle should extend to an employee who has the power to hire and fire, or to grant or deny college admission, because in that case any bigoted comment casts real, reasonable doubt on her willingness to use those powers in a color-blind manner.
She also apparently brought her status as an elite Yelp reviewer to the attention of her students, so she’d connected this with her workplace on her own.
I tell managers not to follow their employees on social media because I do think you should be able to have a separate work and personal life. But, she’s in a position of power over students, and that makes things like this very different.
Sounds like she thought she was being snarky and clever. Not so much.
Privacy on the internet is inherently impossible, and anybody who tells you otherwise is selling something. It is a public forum, and always will be.
Never say anything on the internet that would embarrass you for your mother to see on the 6:00 o’clock news.
When I think of a Deans at Yale, I think of someone distinguished, serious, erudite, refined, classy. Her reviews show no trace of any of these qualities. So whether or not her firing was warranted, how did she get the job in the first place?
I think it’s important to keep in mind that her reviews went beyond being unrefined, or something off-the-cuff that was written in an overly relaxed manner. Rather, there were elements of hate and attacks in her reviews (even if passive-aggressive in the very least). There is a broader issue here of using online “reviews” to attack and disparage people or groups of people. It’s a serious and growing problem. I’m glad to see someone has been held accountable for the damage they’ve done by using online media as a weapon.