Georgetown Law Professor Fired After Zoom Call

Sandra Sellers complained about the academic performance of Black students
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 11, 2021 12:51 PM CST
Updated Mar 12, 2021 8:23 AM CST
Georgetown Professor Accused of 'Blatant' Racism on Zoom
This 2010 photo shows the campus around Georgetown University Law Center.   (Wikimedia/Karatershel)

An adjunct law professor at Georgetown University is out of a job over a Zoom call in which she made disparaging comments about the performance of Black students in her classes, reports CBS News. "We learned earlier this week that two members of our faculty engaged in a conversation that included reprehensible statements concerning the evaluation of Black students," Georgetown Law Dean Bill Treanor wrote in a Wednesday letter, per NBC News. The Black Law Student Association named them as Sandra Sellers and David Batson, per the Daily Beast. Both are white. On Thursday, Treanor announced that Sellers had been fired and Batson placed on administrative leave. In a clip of a Zoom conversation, Sellers spoke to Batson about grades. "I hate to say this. I end up having this, you know, angst every semester that a lot of my lower ones are Blacks," she said.

"It happens almost every semester. And it’s like, 'Oh, come on,'" continued the adjunct professor, per WTOP. "[I] get some really good ones but they're also usually some that are just plain at the bottom," she added. "It drives me crazy." Batson, who had nodded while Sellers was speaking, responded, "What drives me crazy is, you know, the concept of how that plays out, and whether that is, you know, my own perceptions playing in here." Treanor said the video was "abhorrent" and on Thursday said he was "appalled" by the conversation. The Georgetown student who shared the video said the conversation took place in February, and that while students had logged off, the recording wasn't stopped, so the full conversation posted to a class website. It has been viewed more than 900,000 times. (More Georgetown University stories.)

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