It’s a question most university chief executives must answer at least once during the height of winter: Do we keep the doors open or closed on a blustery and bitterly cold school day? The answer to that question rarely makes national news.
But when Dr. Phyllis Wise, chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign opted to keep the doors open despite painfully frigid temperatures earlier this year, Wise, an Asian American, was blasted on social media by students tweeting profane laden racist and sexist rants.
“In room with Phyllis Wise, Adolf Hitler and a gun with one bullet. Who do I shoot,” read one.
“Phyllis Wise is the Kim Jong Un of chancellors,” read another.
“Asians and women aren’t responsible for their actions,” one read.
And those comments were some of the tamest. Others made vulgar references to her anatomy and mocked stereotypical speech patterns of Asians speaking broken English.
