A University of Rochester professor stepped down from his position as program director after people became outraged over his offer to buy anti-Trump students tickets to Canada last week.
Ted Pawlicki, the former undergraduate program director of the Department of Computer Science, reportedly emailed an apology to computer science students and faculty, reports the Democrat and Chronicle.
“I apologize for my Facebook post of Thursday, November 10th. These remarks were ill-considered, and I deeply regret any and all hurt they occasioned,” Pawlicki said in the email.
Pawlicki posted his comment on the Facebook page for a campus protest called “Not My President.”
“A bus ticket from Rochester to Canada is $16. If this is not your America, then I will pay for your ticket if you promise never to come back,” Pawlicki posted on the page a day before the event took place.
Commenters grew outraged, with one Facebook user threatening to report Pawlicki’s comments as a bias incident.
“I have reported this as a bias incident report,” a user wrote on the post, garnering 87 likes.
Another person claimed that Pawlicki’s comments were “insensitive.”
“Shockingly tone-deaf and insensitive to the students that you teach. Shame on you,” a person claimed.
After speaking with the dean of the engineering school and the chair of the computer science department, Pawlicki decided to step down, according to his email.
“Please also be assured that I am absolutely dedicated to the equality of all people. I believed that all my life and have always strived to live according to that principle,” Pawlicki said in the email.
The University of Rochester maintained that the decision to step down from his position as program director was Pawlicki’s and that he is still a part of the faculty.
Pawlicki asserted that his comments were meant as a joke.
“It was intended to be humorous, actually,” Pawlicki told the Democrat and Chronicle. “Moving to Canada (in reaction to presidential election outcomes) has been a joke since the Reagan administration. I didn’t intend it to be malicious, certainly. I don’t think there’s anything malicious about it, either.”
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