Yale Dean Who Called Restaurant Customers ‘White Trash’ on Yelp Forced to Quit

June 20, 2017

Dean June Chu of Yale University’s Pierson College, who was put on leave in May for calling people “white trash” in her Yelp reviews, has left her position.

“Dean Chu has left her position at Pierson College and wishes the best to the students,” Pierson Head Stephen Davis said in his email to students. “As a result, I am initiating the process of the search for a new dean, who will be in place before the start of the fall term.”

Chu was placed on leave in May after the college discovered screenshots of her offensive reviews, one of which called a local restaurant’s customers as “white trash” and “low class folks”.

In a college-wide email last month, Davis said: “Let me be clear. No one, especially those in trusted positions of educating young people, should denigrate or stereotype others, and that extends to any form of discrimination based on class, race, religion, age, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation.”

“What holds us together is our collective effort to ensure that every single person in our midst is valued beyond measure,” he went on. “This is true not only in Pierson and across the [University,] but most emphatically throughout the city of New Haven and in every locale beyond.”

Chu apologized to her students, acknowledging that she made a mistake.

“There are no two ways about it,” Chu wrote, according to Fox News. “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.”

The Yale Daily News reported that a request for comment from Chu was met with an automated email response saying she was “unavailable”, and directed questions about academics to Dean of Academic Affairs Mark Schenker and the residential college office email address.

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