BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — An investigation is underway at Bowling Green State University after a viral social media post on Friday set off a firestorm of accusations against a professor who has been accused of making discriminatory comments in classes and online.
Aarian Lynn is a second-year political science and pre-law student at BGSU. She says she had to take a stand after adjunct economics professor Andre Duclos made what she calls racist remarks during their in-person class.
"There's just no way you can value diversity and inclusion and enable this behavior by keeping a professor like this on," said Lynn.
She also claims Duclos made a comment about her weight when talking about the recent police shooting of Ma'Khia Bryant in Columbus. She stressed these comments were not just a difference of opinion.
"Once it gets to the point where you're starting to spew racist rhetoric, you're starting to say homophobic comments, you're starting to say comments that really hurt a student's identity - that's where it really becomes a problem," said Lynn.
Other students also commented and posted similar charges, while claiming the university ignored earlier reports.
On Friday, BGSU issued a statement addressing the students' accusations.
In it, they say the part-time instructor is not to interact with any students and will not be issuing grades while an investigation continues.
Lynn and other students say the system for reporting these types of concerns is just not working.
"It took for someone to cry out on social media and basically kind of put your brand on the line for leadership to respond," said Lynn.
Lynn says she appreciates the university's response as a first step. But she believes there needs to be more communication and a better system to report similar concerns than just an anonymous online portal.
"We could even make some progress with the 'See it, hear it, report it' system and seeing how we can change it so each student's report is being heard and addressed properly," she added.
WTOL reached out to BGSU for further comment, but officials say an investigation is ongoing.
WTOL also reached out to Duclos, to give him a chance to respond, but did not hear back.