A Georgetown University law professor has been fired and another placed on administrative leave for a recorded conversation between the two about the performance of Black students.
The leaked conversation, which took place recently between professor Sandra Sellers and another adjunct professor via Zoom, was recently shared on Twitter by a student.
In the conversation about the only Black student in Sellers’ class, the professor said the student’s ideas were “jumbled” before lamenting about Black students’ overall performance.
“They were a bit jumbled, that’s the best way I can put it. It’s like, ‘OK, let me reason through that, what you just said.’ I end up having this angst every semester that a lot of my lower ones are Blacks. Happens almost every semester,” Sellers said as the other professor nods, WRC-TV (Channel 4) reported. And it’s like, ‘Oh, come on.’ There’s some really good ones, but there’s also usually some that are just plain at the bottom and it drives me crazy.”
GU Dean Bill Treanor, who responded earlier this week to the video clip in a letter to the school community, confirmed that an investigation had been launched by the school’s Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity & Affirmative Action.
“We learned earlier this week that two members of our faculty engaged in a conversation that included reprehensible statements concerning the evaluation of Black students. We are responding with the utmost seriousness to this situation,” Treanor wrote. “I have watched a video of this conversation and find the content to be abhorrent. It includes conduct that has no place in our educational community. We must ensure that all students are treated fairly and evaluated on their merits.”
