UCF students say prof is 'racist' because he called COVID-19 the 'Wuhan Coronavirus'
UCF students say a political science professor is “racist” for calling COVID-19 the “Wuhan Corona Virus."
Students are demanding action against the professor, and plan to submit a formal report.
A political science professor at the University of Central Florida is being labeled a “racist” for calling COVID-19 the “Wuhan Corona Virus.”
Alvin Quakenbush is a political science professor at Valencia College, as well as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Central Florida. But students at the latter school are accusing him of being racist, as well as being biased in his grading. Students indicated on Twitter that they will file a formal report demanding action from the UCF administration.
Rayanne Anid, a student at UCF, took to Twitter to call out the professor in a thread, stating that Quakenbush is a “racist” who will “deduct points” from students who disagree with him.
Alvin Quackenbush is a political science professor at both UCF and Valencia who is a racist who will deduct points from any students who express any views apart from his own and include very biased questions in his exams. Do not take his classes.
— ray (@rayanneanid) December 12, 2020
Anid, through her Twitter thread, published multiple screenshots of class emails and announcements and said that she intends to file a formal report with the university.
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In a separate tweet, the same student posted more screenshots of Quakenbush’s political views. In it, he writes on the “Wuhan Virus,” criticizing how many play “Monday morning quarterbacks,” and looked at events in retrospect, condemning leaders for having not known acted quicker. He goes to on to defend President Donald Trump stating that “even as President Trump decided to cancel all flights to/from China, he was called racist by many in the government and the media.”
— ray (@rayanneanid) December 13, 2020
Quakenbush further elaborated the hypocrisy that many of those same members of the media and government who criticized the President for taking action in the first place, have issues for him “not doing it earlier.” He believes this “political bickering is senseless and an exercise in futility.”
In a different class-wide announcement, Quakenbush challenged the media’s narratives, noting that the story is “ALWAYS much deeper,” in reference to how the media portrayed the death of George Floyd.
Students further took issue with his post, in which the professor went on to write about Beijing’s reaction to the pandemic, saying that the U.S. should demand the Chinese government answer questions such as “Who knew of the Wuhan Coronavirus and when did they know it?”
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Another student, Christopher Zoeller, added to the chain of tweets by stating “I took his Mass Media and Politics class at UCF this semester and he continually questions the experiences and discrimination that students in his classes went through!”
“UCF, remove this racist professor and do right by your own students,” tweeted the student.
The UCF College Democrats also chimed in, stating that they are “proud to see students taking action against our problematic system. It’s not surprising to see that UCF allows people like....Quakenbush to run wild with bigotry. To deduct points for disagreeing is childish. The College Democrats demanded that the university “step up their game and ACTUALLY create change.”
We’re proud to see students taking action against our problematic system. It’s not surprising to see that UCF allows people like Negy and Quakenbush to run wild with bigotry. To deduct points for disagreeing is childish. @UCF needs to step up their game and ACTUALLY create change https://t.co/6EQlatLjjC
— College Dems @ UCF (@DemsUCF) December 12, 2020
Not all students, however, believed the case against Quakenbush.
Gaby Martinez took Quakenbush’s class and told Campus Reform that these claims about the professor are false: ”The false claims stating that he only called on a select number of students, his tests were biased and that he is a racist, are completely untrue.”
She also said that the professor “often called on a diverse set of students,” allowed the class to engage in free discussion, “presented facts” and acted “very bipartisan, and would expose lies and truths on both sides of the political spectrum.”
She commented that “we disagreed and agreed on a lot of things,” but that “he was always respectful and civil.”
“We cannot continue to normalize calling people racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic or any other extreme claim, just because they do not agree with you 100%,” Martinez said.
Campus Reform did not receive responses from UCF or Quakenbush.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @ajmunguia23
