The Cronkite School’s newly-appointed head dean Sonya Duhe is under investigation after a former student tweeted Tuesday alleging racist comments toward her and other students.
It started earlier that afternoon when Duhe tweeted, “For the family of George Floyd, the good police officers that keep us safe, my students, faculty and staff. Praying for peace on this #BlackOutTuesday.”
Whitney Woods, who graduated in 2015 from Loyola University at New Orleans where Duhe previously worked as director, criticized the former director’s tweet in a response thread stating Duhe was racist to her and fellow students in her time at the university.
“OK HERE WE GO. Dear KAREN…i mean SONYA. There is no way in HELL that BLACK LIVES matter to you. I would like respectively ask for you F*** OFF. You are one of, if not, THE most racist human that I have ever encountered in a professional setting,” Woods’ tweet said.
OK HERE WE GO. Dear KAREN…i mean SONYA.
There is no way in HELL that BLACK LIVES matter to you.
I would like respectively ask for you FUCK OFF.You are one of, if not, THE most racist human that I have ever encountered in a professional setting. https://t.co/BQUoPpYqmR
— whitney. (@whittwoods) June 2, 2020
“I came across her tweet and it felt very disingenuous to me,” Woods said. “I had two specific issues with that. You put George Floyd followed by ‘good police officers.’ And the second thing was not even Black Lives Matter but you chose to put your statement during Black Out Tuesday and in my profession if you did that you would be facing backlash.”
Woods said when she decided to send the tweet, she didn’t know where Duhe was in her life at the moment or that she had been appointed at the Cronkite school, however, she said she wanted to finally be able to tell her to face the music.
“You have the audacity to say something like this but you need to face yourself,” Woods said. “This was you and this was my experience with you and unfortunately this was my adjacent experience with some of my peers as well and you had the audacity to say that I’m praying for you guys.”
Woods’ Twitter thread spans nine tweets regarding the way students, particularly students of color and first generation students, were treated by Duhe. Since Woods’ thread was published, hundreds of students and graduates responded supporting Woods and coming out with stories of their own regarding Duhe’s behavior.
“I was sick to my stomach,” Woods said when she found out Duhe was Cronkite’s newly-appointed dean. “It was one of those moments where I was like ‘how?’”
According to an article from the State Press, “Her repeated behavior, which has been reported and confirmed by 23 Loyola University New Orleans students who attended the university between 2013 and 2019, included telling Black journalists their appearance, specifically their hair, was not appropriate for television as well as criticizing the voices of gay students.”
Cronkite students were also taken aback when they found the Twitter thread and began to demand the Cronkite school take action in wake of these allegations.
Kiarra Spottsville, president of the National Association of Black Journalists and a senior at the Cronkite school, and fellow student Susan Wong created a GroupMe message for Cronkite students to join and come up with ideas to show that Duhe’s previous behavior should not and would not be tolerated by the student body.
“Being a black student, we see this all the time,” Spottsville said. “I wasn’t necessarily surprised but I was upset, angry and disappointed because this is a person that is supposed to be representing the Cronkite school and to be racist toward a group of students you’re representing is not OK and should have been screened beforehand.”
Nicole Shinn is the vice president NABJ and a junior at the Cronkite school and said while she was reading the tweets, she became more concerned at how this slipped past ASU when they were in the process of hiring Duhe.
“You cannot ethically hire a racist dean that isn’t compatible and you can’t hold your students to a higher vetting process with our professional programs than when you hold actual professionals,” she said. “There’s no way this just slipped through the cracks. They need to respect and honor their students by handling this correctly.”
The problem with Duhe’s screening was that ASU reportedly received no bias reports or complaints against her while from Loyola University. However, Leah Banks, who graduated from Loyola in 2019, filed a complaint to human resources about Duhe but was closed during Banks’ senior year.
Downtown Devil reached out to Loyola regarding why the bias report was never sent but Loyola has not responded.
Provost Mike Searle Executive Vice President and University Provost, released a statement from the school saying they have been made aware of the tweets and allegations against Duhe and they will be looking into it.
“Over the last 24 hours I have been made aware, along with President Crow, of concerns about her past treatment of students, and in particular, students of color, at Loyola University in New Orleans,” Searle said in an email statement. “Our commitment to diversity and inclusion is unwavering at Arizona State University. We will be looking into the concerns brought to our attention. I will share developments when appropriate.”
Contact the reporter at smedwar7@asu.edu.
Correction: In a previous version of this article, Leah Banks was misidentified. We deeply regret this error.
Sara Edwards was the executive editor of Downtown Devil. She is a graduate student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Sara has additional bylines in Phoenix New Times, West Valley View, L.A. Downtown News and Boardwalk Times.
Sara is also the co-secretary for the Multicultural Student Journalists Coalition.
