Found here.
Emirati student Asma Al Yamahi has told Gulf News she is now suffering a backlash from people upset over the sacking of lecturer Dr Paul Buchanan.
Buchanan was fired by Auckland University because of an e-mail he sent Asma after she asked for an assignment deadline to be extended following her father's death.
The sacking of the politics lecturer has received heavy publicity, and some residents there have taken the view that he was unfairly dismissed, causing Asma to question whether she wants to stay in New Zealand.
Asma, who is studying for an MA at Auckland University, said she had recently moved accommodation because she no longer felt safe where she had been living.
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"He is saying [in interviews]: 'This is a very bad thing for my career and I cannot work in New Zealand anymore,'" Asma, 25, told Gulf News by telephone from New Zealand.
Transferring
"Some people hate me because of what happened to Paul Buchanan. People are blaming me. They are saying: 'Why did you do that? Where will we find another supervisor?' Now I feel unsafe to visit the campus."
She said that while she had found most people in New Zealand to be "very friendly", she now felt like "a stranger in a different country".
"I am thinking of transferring to my country rather than studying New Zealand politics," said the University of Al Ain graduate, whose family lives in Fujairah.
In his e-mail to Asma, sent at the end of May, Buchanan said he had been generous to the Emirati student up until then and would not grant her request for an extension to her essay deadline.
Click here to read the full text of the email sent by Dr Paul Buchanan
He told Asma she was a badly performing student and even questioned whether her father had died. Buchanan later apologised by e-mail for what he had written, but Asma approached the university's mediation service to complain about the initial e-mail, leading to the sacking.
Buchanan, 52, was born in New York and taught in Arizona and Florida before moving to New Zealand a decade ago. In an interview with the New Zealand Herald, the expert in international security admitted he should not have sent the e-mail to Asma.
Poor quality
He said earlier that day he had argued with a colleague, Associate Professor Steve Hoadley, over the "poor quality" of some overseas students taking his classes.
Buchanan felt many students had inadequate English skills and little prior knowledge of the subjects they were studying.
"It was hurting us in our graduate classes because these people were badly underprepared and in some cases had no background in political science whatsoever," Buchanan said.
"It's extremely hard to teach at graduate level when you have people who literally do not know the language of instruction."
Buchanan told the New Zealand Herald that when he wrote the controversial e-mail he was facing an end to funding for the New Zealand Centre for Latin American Studies, of which he was acting director, and was recovering from bowel surgery.
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10 comments:
Two trains on the same track heading straight towards each other!
The prof. should have just denied her request and bitten his tongue on the commentary.
She should've asked about the assignment sooner, and not after it was due.
Who knows what her previous grades were in his class, or how he dealt with her and vice versa. Maybe, after this gets more headlines in NZ, more students will speak out about it - one way or another. Obviously, she's feeling some sort of reprisals, which suggests to me, other students are pissed off at her, but why exactly? Is she ill pre-pared for college, spoiled, making a mountain out of a molehill?
I'm surprised they fired him, but that begs another question - again, why? Did they have other complaints?
Too bad we don't know more about either of these people, because this sounds like a common school / college experience, which has gotten overblown by the school, her and the news.
One immediately wonders whether there would have been any such situation if the student had been say... a Chinese male? Or even an NZ student?
Those of us who have taught many Emirati women are aware of their habits... and her excuse wouldn't have flown with me. Her emailed question showed that she probably wasn't up to the course and this was an excuse. I would have given her an F or an Incomplete as per university rules.
The teacher was foolish to make the response he did, but it doesn't seem to me to be a firing offense unless he has done such repeatedly in the past and was already a problem for admin.
Like vagabondblogger says, we never quite get all the pertinent facts in stories like this.
VS
I wouldn't imagine that there are loads of Emirati women studying in NZ that would allow for him to develop some sort of bias against her. Had he lived and taught in the Gulf, on the other hand, that might make more sense. This notion that he singled her out doesn't fly with me. His email was foolish, but I'm inclined to this this is the woman who cried wolf. She asked to be anonymous in the NZ Herald article, but then went the Gulf News, smiles all around, and gave them the story.
Yeah Cairogal, something stinks here. I saw the pic of her all smiling, and that just didn't sit well with me. Meanwhile, old prof, sits around anonymously packing up his boxes, and looking for a new job - that is, if her allegations have not ruined his reputation.
Have a look at the comments from the Gulf News story, Vagabond. Amazing how the first 20 are anti-professor.
I saw that... and... Rather typical of Gulf students. Everything is the teacher's fault... not the fact that they sleep in class or don't do the homework or the maid's essay got a low grade.
I really enjoyed my time with them, but they are SOOOOO spoiled and think that the world revolves around them. Certainly an age factor, but under their system, a expat teachers often has to either give in to them or know how to play the system and beat them at their own game.
VS
Interesting...it does sound like pieces of the puzzle are missing, which makes it hard to form an opinion. But I most agree with the first comment here. For some people making excuses is the norm, and I think some situations tolerate that more than others...but it also sounds like the professor may have been waiting for his chance to get angry and chose the wrong case.
Yeah, I saw some of those. The problem with a lot of those kids, is even though they've been attending western style schools in their home countries, many are not prepared for university life. A lot of these kids have no study nor time management skills.
A friend from ACS in Abu Dhabi had gotten hold of a retention rate report of the ACS graduates who had graduated and found a good percentage of drop outs the first year of college, regardless of ethnicity.
I still don't understand why they fired the prof. and didn't just suspend him or something. It sounds a bit drastic. As they say, "money talks" and she did mention knowing a sheikh, so it makes me wonder if there was pressure from another source.
Katie and Vagabond, you're both right: there are pieces missing. I suppose VS and I are bit jaded when it comes to teaching in the UAE. Perhaps it's that we're not jaded-we're just wiser to some of the stunts. I'd be curious to see if the family had 'donated' anything to the university.
I'd agree CG... we have seen too many of their little games. :-)
It is highly unusual for Emirati girls to travel overseas to study, so that suggests a wealthy and influential family.
And then again, the university may have dying to find a reason to get rid of this teacher.
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