Former Boston University lecturer Geoffrey Carliner refuted claims he discriminated against Asian and Asian American students after an internal investigation last year led to his contract not being renewed.
The Equal Opportunity Office conducted an investigation spring 2021 into Carliner’s behavior in his Economics of Less-Developed Regions (EC 320) course after it received a student’s anonymous complaint, according to documents obtained by The Daily Free Press.
A student alleged that, on multiple occasions, Carliner “targeted Asian students making them feel uncomfortable, offended and unable to participate fully or attend class,” according to the report.
The student also claimed that Carliner assumed the nationality and origin of Asian students based on their last names and called on them in particular to answer questions and defend China’s policies.
On June 4, 2021, the report by the EOO found a “preponderance of evidence” that Carliner had discriminated against students. Carliner denies these allegations.
“I don’t think I discriminated,” Carliner said. “I, of course, did not mean to make anybody feel uncomfortable. I think it’s political correctness gone amok to fire me for what happened in my economics class last spring.”
The report also concluded Carliner violated the office’s retaliation policy — which states it is unlawful and prohibited to retaliate against individuals who bring forward or assist in a complaint.
As the investigation was ongoing, Carliner sent out an email May 6, 2021 — the same day as the course’s final exam — asking students to email the investigator assigned to the case and inform them on whether he displayed improper behavior in class or if his class stimulated useful discussions.
“If BU finds that I have acted improperly, they may decide not to renew my contract, and might even decide to fire me,” he wrote in the email. “Thank you in advance. Your emails could help me keep my job.”
Dean of Arts and Sciences Stan Sclaroff later issued a warning to Carliner in a July 15, 2021 letter.
“Further contact with students from Spring 2021 EC 320 regarding this investigation or its conclusions will be considered a violation of the Policy and will also result in the termination of your employment,” Sclaroff wrote in a letter.
On December 30, 2021, Carliner told students he intended to retire early in an email. Last Monday, Carliner sent out another email announcing that the University decided not to renew his contract past July 1, 2022, based on the investigation’s findings.
“It’s total hypocrisy on the part of the BU,” said Carliner, “ It is not retaliation. I didn’t punish any student. I didn’t do anything harmful to any student by asking them to write the email. Easy enough for them to ignore my email, most of them did.”
Out of the 64 students in the class, 26 responded to Carliner’s request and emailed the EOO. Most gave a positive impression of Carliner, but two corroborated the student’s discrimination claims, according to the report.
In one of the emails obtained by The Daily Free Press, one Asian student wrote that, in the class, they felt they were able to share views “deeply related to my race, my nationality, and myself.”
“…based upon these facts and logical factors, I can assure that Professor Carliner’s mistake is not an act of discrimination but simply a misidentification of one specific student,” the student wrote.
Bo Peng, a junior in the Questrom School of Business who took EC 320 with Carliner, said the course is structured in a way that encourages class discussions on the economies of countries such as India, China and Brazil.
Peng said he did not regard Carliner’s email as an act of retaliation, adding students should “have the right to be informed” about complaints of discrimination against their professor.
“I feel like BU didn’t give us a chance to explain very well to BU about how professor Carliner did in class,” Peng said. “BU only took one person’s opinion, which is not equal at all.”
Jennifer Wang, a junior in the College of Communication who took the course EC320 with Carliner, said she didn’t “feel anything like what was mentioned in the email.”
“I was a little bit confused when I received that email when the professor said someone reported him as discrimination,” Wang said. “ I liked the class and I think I learned a lot from it, I just didn’t feel anything about discrimination overall.”
Sclaroff declined to comment on the case, but wrote in an email that the College of Arts and Sciences is committed to maintaining an environment where “all can learn and thrive.”
BU spokesperson Colin Riley did not comment on the issue beyond reiterating that BU “strongly encourages” students to report any inappropriate conduct by a member of the faculty so the University can then investigate and determine whether it violates its policies.
The EOO also declined to provide details on the case, writing in an email it seeks to protect the integrity of the investigative process and involved parties’ privacy.
Peng said he was “very disappointed” when BU did not renew Carliner’s contract, and felt it unfair given the limited number of student complaints.
“If only one person complains, and then they made our investigation on it, and then that person’s friend also made a complaint about it. Then the professor is going to be fired, ” Peng said. “So we can do that to every professor in every class, which is a policy that’s unfair to everyone.”
City Editor Cici Yu contributed to the reporting of this article.
Michael Manove, Professor of Economics • Mar 4, 2022 at 3:48 pm
The mission of most Boston University instructors is to teach concepts, facts and ideas to our students. Some of these facts and ideas may hurt the feelings of some students. Consider, for example, a lecture on corruption in various countries around the world. I doubt that our University leadership would want its instructors to avoid such topics for fear of offending students. But that is the result we are likely to get if an occasional student complaint about discrimination or sexual harassment can lead to the termination of an instructor without a thoroughgoing investigation among a broad segment of the instructor’s students.
I have made the embarrassing mistake, on the spur of the moment, of assuming that a student with a Chinese name was Chinese rather than American or of some other nationality. It’s a mistake I hope never to repeat. However, I don’t think such an error makes me a racist. I am well acquainted with Professor Carliner, and I am completely confident that he is not a racist. I think that his exit will deprive many of our students of his excellent instruction.
Michael Manove • Mar 4, 2022 at 3:47 pm
The mission of most Boston University instructors is to teach concepts, facts and ideas to our students. Some of these facts and ideas may hurt the feelings of some students. Consider, for example, a lecture on corruption in various countries around the world. I doubt that our University leadership would want its instructors to avoid such topics for fear of offending students. But that is the result we are likely to get if an occasional student complaint about discrimination or sexual harassment can lead to the termination of an instructor without a thoroughgoing investigation among a broad segment of the instructor’s students.
I have made the embarrassing mistake, on the spur of the moment, of assuming that a student with a Chinese name was Chinese rather than American or of some other nationality. It’s a mistake I hope never to repeat. However, I don’t think such an error makes me a racist. I am well acquainted with Professor Carliner, and I am completely confident that he is not a racist. I think that his exit will deprive many of our students of his excellent instruction.
AnonymousProfessor • Mar 2, 2022 at 7:13 pm
One disgruntled student can ruin a man’s life and livelihood simply because they feel uncomfortable?! Conversations about race are uncomfortable and yet BU encourages us to have them. In fact, all I hear is “listen to students/ask them about their cultures/promote diversity. Don’t lecture – listen.” Did this professor handle this edict clumsily? I don’t know – I’m not in his class, but other students quoted in the article don’t seem to think so. I agree with the student BU should disclose the findings to both students and faculty. Certainly when another lecturer was fired for sexual harassment, all the salacious details were released. What was the “preponderance of evidence” BU found. We here from many students in the class who said “no, this did not happen.” Students feel uncomfortable. It’s uncomfortable to have professors call on you. It’s uncomfortable to have professors ask you what you think. It’s uncomfortable to talk about ethnicity. It’s uncomfortable to have someone evaluate you and assign a number to your work. Power differentials are uncomfortable.
Now, this story concludes with “so now we can do this to every professor in every class.” Yes, you can.
I can tell you that many of my colleagues refuse to talk about race or sexuality at all even though we are encouraged to have “more diverse” classes because they are terrified that they too will be cancelled, that they will accidentally say the wrong thing and their career that they worked at for decades and decades will be over. This story should scare all professors – it know I am scared. It shows that BU will give credence to any student with an axe to grind and let them take that axe to your head. Well, since BU is a school where they only recently urge us to promote diversity but have always urged us not to grade inflate “to give real grades” “to give low grades even” – there are lots of knives to be sharpened so everyone should be on alert. This incident could have been handled by an apology and change of behavior. I didn’t know it was even wrong for a professor to ask a question like “how is X different in your country?” but if it is and it’s making students uncomfortable or singled out, we should talk about it and we should stop doing it but we should stop the witch hunts and subsequent public hangings.
When I told my friend how outraged I was by this story, she said “you can’t defend him because then, people will think you are racially inappropriate too.”
I applaud the students who gave the interviews and say that BU is wrong because it shows how one incident might be interpreted in many ways. We should all try to check our biases, and every professor should try to make sure every student feels comfortable, but we should also call out injustice. This man’s termination makes me uncomfortable and if you care about academic freedom, it should make you uncomfortable.
BU spokesman Colin Riley declines comment but encourages any BU student to report to BU if they are made to feel uncomfortable… After all, these people are only lecturers -for those of you who don’t understand the tenure system – that means we are easy to dispose of/easy to replace/easy to write off.
BU owes us all, professors and students, and the community an explanation. If something happened and it was inappropriate, then, we can all grow and learn from it, but right now, all we have are the voices of these 3 students in the piece. If something happened and it made students uncomfortable shouldn’t we know not only so that we don’t make students uncomfortable but so that we are not the next head on the chopping block.
Ash L • Feb 28, 2022 at 2:45 pm
I am totally shocked by this news and I feel sorry that Professor Carliner was unfairly alleged to be discriminating against his students. I am a Chinese international student, and I took the Economics of Less-Developed Regions class in Fall 2017. Professor Carliner was one of the most knowledgable, respected, and humblest professors I have known. He asked for international perspectives in a non-discriminating way and he used the economic model of China as an example to illustrate the otherwise plain academic concepts. In his OHs, he listened to students’ opinions and he respected different voices. I don’t know how this student was discriminated against and I absolutely have no right to speak for all international students who had taken this class. That said, based on my experience, I can affirm Professor Carliner is not a racist, and not having him as a lecturer would be a loss to the BU students. I wish due diligence could be done to bring justice to Professor Carliner.
S.Squeglia • Feb 27, 2022 at 9:36 am
One anonymous student complained! Did he recieve a good grade? BU decided to investigate this professor on this non evidence? What is BU doing? Every professor is subject to a student who perceives some so-called injustice? BU professors beware. Your future is very fragile.