St Andrews: Elitist, sexist and racist?

Second-year students in an International Relations lecture were told by their co-ordinator that they were seen as elitist, sexist and racist after about 1/6th of them walked out of a […]

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Second-year students in an International Relations lecture were told by their co-ordinator that they were seen as elitist, sexist and racist after about 1/6th of them walked out of a lecture the previous week.

On October the 18th, Professor Ali Watson delivered a lecture on social constructivism, using gender as an example of a social construction. Approximately halfway through the lecture and “within 2 to 3 minutes of [Watson] bringing up gender,” students began to leave the lecture hall. This exodus of students, overwhelmingly male, continued for the rest of Watson’s lecture, who estimated 30 out of 160 ended up leaving.

Professor Watson ended her lecture 10 minutes early and thanked the students, especially the male students, who stayed through the hour. She left to a smattering of applause, her lecture series over.

After the walkout, Watson told The Stand that she received a number of emails from students that “made it quite clear that they felt that the walkout was a result of mentioning gender.” She agreed, and emailed her colleagues within school administration to tell them of the events in her last lecture, including overheads and notes that she had displayed.

Obviously, the saga doesn’t end there. During the first lecture of the next week, Dr. Caron Gentry, Second Year Coordinator for the School of IR, spoke to the same group of students. She first read the sponsio acadimica and then  proceeded to tell the lecture theatre that people perceive St Andrews students as being “elitist, sexist and racist,” and walking out of a lecture revolving around gender did nothing to help their cause.

The Stand spoke to second year IR student Tarleton who didn’t walk out because “you should generally respect lecturers under all circumstances. It was extraordinarily rude of those people to leave.” However, he went on to say that he found Dr Gentry’s words, whilst accurate, “painted the entire class with a very broad brush.”

Fellow lecture attendee, Wallis said “Dr. Watson is a polite and relational lecturer who was teaching a complicated subject…if you’re bored, don’t listen, but don’t be so rude as to walk out”. *

The University responded by saying, “Walking out of a lecture displays a lack of respect and deference for teachers, a certain lack of maturity and a failure to engage critically with the subject being studied. Behaviour of this sort is not regarded as acceptable by the University. It contravenes the sponsio academica and the basic codes of courtesy and respect which the majority of St Andrews students and staff regard as fundamental currency of our community. We are hopeful that those who walked out have since reflected on their behaviour and now realise that they risked letting themselves down, their teachers, their classmates and the wider student community in St Andrews, and that there will no repeat of such action.”

<a href=”http://polldaddy.com/poll/6652693/”>Do you think it is rude to walk out of a lecture?</a>

*The quotations in this article have been amended

Image © st-andrews.ac.uk (first female students at St Andrews)