W ant to know why Donald Trump is president? Read no further than the various writings of June Chu dean of students of Pierson College one of the 12 residential colleges for Yale undergraduates.
Chu has written in Inside Higher Education of the need for “cultural sensitivity” and the avoidance of “micro-aggressions” in discussions with minority students. And she describes her job as a Pierson dean as supporting students in their “holistic and multifaceted identities.”
But apparently that sensitivity only extends to certain groups and identities. Thus in one review for Yelp a site where goods and services are rated Chu mocked the employees at one local New Haven cinema as “barely educated morons trying to manage snack orders for the obese while trying to add $7 plus $7.” In a review of a Japanese restaurant she wrote “If you are white trash this is the perfect night out for you!” Far from being embarrassed by these reviews Chu sent an e-mail to all Pierson students on January 30 boasting of having been designated a member of the “Yelp Elite” for her active participation as a reviewer at the website.
When the reviews first came to light in a Yale Daily News article neither Pierson College nor Yale moved to discipline Chu on the grounds that there were “only two” such reviews — i.e. the ones cited above. Only after the discovery of other snarky reviews did the head of Pierson College ask Chu to take a temporary leave. But both he and Yale College dean Jonathan Holloway emphasized that she had not been asked to resign.
