So how accepting should we be of language changes?

[Dingo Gibby]

Originally Posted by Lodestar

It's getting pretty crazy. A Fordham lecturer was fired for accidently calling a student by another student's name.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/fordham-u...black-students

The students say they were disrespected but the instructor says it was a mistake. This happens all the time in colleges when professors have an enormous turnover of students every quarter. Pretty hard to remember everyone's names.

So apparently all you have to say is that you felt disrespected without being able to prove intent and you can cost someone their livelihood.

That's pretty severe judgement for a minor error. Maybe the instructor should have had a notebook complete with each student's name and picture?

Ah, the priveleged generation.

Did you actually read the article ... or just google a headline???

From the article you cited: "The article said that of the two students who were involved in the mixup, one of them claims that Trogan repeatedly used the wrong name throughout four classes"

[Rachel NewYork]

Originally Posted by Dingo Gibby

Did you actually read the article ... or just google a headline???

From the article you cited: "The article said that of the two students who were involved in the mixup, one of them claims that Trogan repeatedly used the wrong name throughout four classes"

As I said, fake martyrdom.

Yes, there is no doubt more to the story.

The teacher in question was not tenured and, according to other sources, appeared to have some emotional problems. The university is not at liberty to elaborate on the matter due to anticipated or pending lawsuits, but Fordham spokesman Bob Howe told The New York Post that "media representations regarding this issue do not reflect the facts in Dr. Trogan’s case.” My guess is that the teacher may have already had a history of "mishaps" such as this one, and that this one was the final straw for the university.

Bottom line is this: News media will jump on stories such as this one in order to elicit reactionary outrage from people on both sides of the issue. Because that's what makes the $$$ for the news media. Some of us are old enough to have learned from our parents that there is often more to a story than one initially hears.

[Nefret]

My understanding is that the professor sent a lengthy email to the class in which he apologized for his mistake. Apparently the email was what triggered the firing.

Apparently he didn't come across well in the email. I don't know the details.

[Ralph_Kirk]

Originally Posted by Nefret

My understanding is that the professor sent a lengthy email to the class in which he apologized for his mistake. Apparently the email was what triggered the firing.

Apparently he didn't come across well in the email. I don't know the details.

We've seen this play out a number of times. Apologies are never accepted, but stonewalling often works.

A standing lesson in these issues appears to be "Never Apologize. An apology is just chum in the water."

[Rachel NewYork]

Seeing as how this thread has drifted off of it's original topic of changing language to professors forgetting their students names (either accidentally or deliberately), this topic appears to have run its course and is perhaps better suited for the Politics & Other Controversies forum. Time to give it a rest in Great Debates. Thank you to all who participated.