A taxpayer-funded professor at Old Dominion University has apologized for saying “SCREW YOU” in an email to students, faculty members and administrators who would not be attending at least one of four diversity-related events sponsored by the school.
“YOU ARE NOT AMERICAN,” the professor, Norou Diawara, also told email recipients who chose to skip diversity events.
Diawara is an associate professor of statistics at Old Dominion, according to The Virginian-Pilot, the main newspaper in the surrounding city of Norfolk, Virginia.
He sent his biting email to Old Dominion’s Coalition of Black Faculty and Administrators on Monday afternoon. The list of recipients included graduate students in statistics, university staffers and other professors.
Diawara, who originally came to the United States from Dakar, Senegal, wrote that is “not happy at all, with the state of the affairs in the USA,” according to The Pilot.
“It is very sad we have come to this level,” the stats professor opined.
“BUT REALLY SCREW YOU IF YOU CANNOT GO TO ANY OF THESE EVENTS,” Diawara wrote in the closing paragraph of his email. “YOU ARE NOT AMERICAN.”
And then he signed off: “With Very Best Regards, Norou.”
The body of Diawara’s email mentioned a handful of events related to campus diversity which will be occurring this semester at Old Dominion.
One of the events to which Diawara alluded was Monday’s campus solidarity rally organized to protest against President Donald Trump’s executive order suspending entry into the United States for people from seven predominantly Muslim nations.
There was also a lecture at Old Dominion’s Intercultural Center and a meeting for black students and faculty members who are involved in the fields of science, technology, mathematics and engineering.
Diawara told The Pilot that he has sent an email to the same list of recipients apologizing for the all-caps outburst in his first email.
Old Dominion’s administration has announced that it is reviewing the email.
“Old Dominion University nurtures a climate of care, concern and civility toward others,” provost Austin Agho said in a statement. “The reported statement does not reflect our values.”
According to Diawara’s decidedly nonpolitical Old Dominion webpage, he has a Ph.D. in mathematics from Auburn University and a pair of master’s degrees from the University of South Alabama and the University of Le Havre in France. His undergraduate degree comes from the University of Dakar.
Diawara is also the president of the Old Dominion Coalition of Black Faculty & Administrators.
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