College of Communication professor Tinker Ready no longer works at Boston University, following an investigation by the Equal Opportunity Office. The investigation, which was updated and shared with Ready in May, found that she violated the EOO’s Prohibition on Retaliation Policy, according to documents obtained by The Daily Free Press.
The EOO opened an investigation into Ready following her actions toward now-sophomore Shelby Rose Long, who was a student in her spring Introduction to Communication Writing class. At this time, The Daily Free Press is unable to verify if Ready resigned from her position or if she was fired by the University.
In March, The Daily Free Press reported Long filed a complaint with COM against Ready. The complaint, filed on Jan. 26, alleged Ready made comments displaying “inappropriate or prejudiced behavior” in the class, also called CO 201.
According to the final report, Ready said to Long on Feb. 20, “Can you not be a f—king b-tch for the rest of the semester?” during a conversation in the hallway. This comment spurred Long to file a report against Ready through the EOO the same day, which started an investigation. This incident, and a comment Ready made on one of Long’s YouTube videos, led EOO to determine Ready violated the office’s retaliation policy.
In the policy, it is “illegal” to “retaliate against a person for filing a complaint or cooperating in an investigation.”
EOO determines Ready violated policy
The EOO defines retaliation as “conduct taken against an individual that has substantial and material adverse effect on that person’s living, learning or working environment” in its report.
The EOO determines if its Prohibition on Retaliation Policy was broken by concluding 1) if the person who experienced retaliation — in this case, Long — participated in a “protected activity;” 2) if that person’s living, learning or working environment was affected due to circumstances surrounding an investigation; and 3) if the potential violator — Ready — affected at least one of these environments because the person’s participation in the protected activity.
Protected activity: EOO determined Long engaged in protected activity when she emailed COM Undergraduate Affairs on Jan. 26 about Ready’s alleged comments.
Affected living, learning or working environment: EOO determined two main circumstances in which Long’s living and learning environments were “substantially” affected by Ready’s behavior.
The report said Ready impacted Long’s learning environment because CO 201 is a required class for Long’s journalism degree. Ready held “substantial power in the student-professor dynamic” and “a bad grade in [Ready’s] class could seriously impact [Long’s] academic career.”
The report also stated Long spoke to Ready “disrespectfully” during their “heated exchange” on Feb. 20.
After the exchange, Long received an email from the EOO that the office issued a no-contact order, stating she could not contact Ready, according to an email reviewed by The Daily Free Press. Long was told Ready received the same order.
EOO reported that Long’s living environment was negatively impacted when Ready “purposefully [sought] out and commented on [Long’s] social media and commenting on her YouTube video.”
On March 6, Ready commented “Fewere words, not less” on a video Long posted, in which Long critiques a handout she received in Ready’s class but does not mention Ready’s name or CO 201 in the video, according to the report.
The final report includes an email to Bannie Dhami, a civil rights investigator at EOO, where Ready wrote, “I was unaware of the no contact order when I commented on Ms. Long’s video. It was a public video.” Ready reaffirmed in an email to The Daily Free Press that she was unaware of the no-contact order.
According to the EOO investigation, Ready “acknowledged she intentionally commented” on the video so Long could see that she watched it.
The final report concluded that Ready was not aware of the no-contact order when she commented.
Long said she became worried about Ready’s behavior after the incident.
“The fact that I don’t know where she is every hour on campus is scary,” Long said, according to the EOO report. “This has been extremely stressful for me and a terrible way to spend my freshman year.”
Since Ready commented on her video, Long said she stopped posting on YouTube and made her social media accounts private.
“I became a little hyper-aware that people could see [my social media],” Long said in an interview with The Daily Free Press. “I’m nineteen. I don’t really feel like I should care that much.”
After The Daily Free Press published the first article about her, Ready requested to follow current and previous members of the editorial board and of the Back Bay Publishing Company, the non-profit organization that governs the newspaper, on various social media platforms.
Affected living, learning or working environment due to participation in the protected activity: After Long filed a complaint against Ready, a protected activity, the EOO concluded Long’s living and learning environments were affected. The office found Ready violated the policy of retaliation with her actions towards Long on Feb. 20 and March 6.
Allegations of discriminatory comments
Despite Long’s Jan. 26 complaint of Ready’s “inappropriate or prejudiced behavior,” the EOO’s investigation into Ready was not due to alleged comments made towards other students. However, COM administration expressed concern about Ready’s approach to interacting with international students.
Ready met with Michael Dowding, a master lecturer in COM, and Dana Janbek, a communication director and master lecturer in COM, on Feb. 7 following Long’s initial complaint, according to the report.
Dowding and Janbek declined to comment.
According to the transcript from the meeting, Dowding and Janbek were concerned about Ready’s performance and behavior in class. They referenced past course evaluations that indicated an “emerging pattern of inappropriate comments and treatment of international students” and a “complaint filed by a student.”
Janbek and Dowding asked Ready to “make a concerted effort to pronounce student’s names correctly and create a more inclusive learning environment, rather than ‘othering’ international students,” according to the meeting transcript.
Ready said despite her efforts to properly pronounce students’ names, she still had some difficulty. She suggested calling all her students by their last names as a solution.
“I put my student’s name in the translator before class and write it out phonetically for me,” Ready said during the Feb. 7 meeting. “I think I’m going to go to Harry Potter Way and just call them by their last names. Ms. Wong, Ms. Lee, Ms. Liu. I think that’s easier. Their last names are easier to pronounce.”
In response, Dowding told Ready to call students by the names they prefer.
Dowding provided Ready with educational resources to “create a classroom environment that is as welcoming and inclusive as possible,” according to the transcript.
Emily Qin is a student who took Ready’s class in fall 2023. In an email to The Daily Free Press, she wrote that Ready “judges fairly” when grading, basing her grades off writing quality and extended extra support for her students.
“I am shocked to find what Professor Ready is being accused of, and as a Chinese English second language student, I’ll have to say that I never felt discriminated in her class,” Qin wrote.
In an interview with The Daily Free Press, Qin said Ready asked her to share her experiences in Ready’s class with The Daily Free Press. Qin said Ready did not tell Qin what to say in the email or interview. Qin no longer attends BU.
Qin said that while Ready had difficulty pronouncing students’ names she “really tried” by confirming Qin’s name every time and using a list with pronunciation listed “for every Chinese student.”
“She interacted with everyone in the same way,” Qin said. “It’s not about ethnicity or race, it’s about how students behave.”
Moving forward
It is unclear whether Ready left her position as a BU professor of her own accord or if she was terminated.
The May EOO report stated that subjects of a complaint can appeal the action taken as a result of the complaint.
Following the conclusion of the EOO report, Ready emailed Dhami on May 15 and said she resigned from her position due to the investigation.
“I feel I was treated unfairly and not protected from an extremely hostile student,” Ready wrote. “I have resigned from the Writing Program in response.”
In emails to The Daily Free Press this month, Ready wrote that BU would not rehire her for the 2024-25 school year.
“Ready has been told she will not be rehired in the fall due to this case,” Ready wrote.
According to Ready, the case is under appeal through the part-time union grievance process. Natalia Berthet Garcia, communications director for SEIU 509, the union that represents part-time professors at BU, declined to comment on the appeal.
The Daily Free Press was unable to confirm if Ready filed an appeal with the EOO about the investigation’s conclusion.
COM Dean Mariette DiChristina has the final say on discipline following the conclusion of the investigation, according to BU Spokesperson Colin Riley.
DiChristina wrote in an email to The Daily Free Press that she is unable to speak on ongoing personnel matters. Riley declined to comment on Ready’s employment status for the same reason.
Long said in an interview that when she filed the original complaint, her intent was to be switched out of Ready’s class.
“It just really dragged, and the whole thing was hard,” she said. “It felt a little bit more like I was being put on trial, which I was frustrated by.”
Ready would not comment on the conclusions of the report, her employment status with the University or a possible appeal of the report’s decision.
Ready has maintained her stance The Daily Free Press inaccurately reported the previous article. She wrote in an email to The Daily Free Press that “the Daily Free Press refuses to run a correction on errors in a May 29 story about me.”
The original article was published on March 29, 2024. The Daily Free Press maintains that the reporting in the original article is correct.
Managing Co-Editor Andrew DiBiasio and Lifestyle Editor Corinne Davidson took CO 201 with Tinker Ready in spring 2023 and fall 2023, respectively. Neither were involved in the reporting, writing or editing of this article.
