The Following Is A List Of Grievances From Several Students

The following is a list of grievances from several students in PMGT 265 against the Professor Robert Carmona-Borjas: -

Highly offensive, improper, and discriminatory behavior o Use of the word “gringo” to address students in the class. o Asked students who are “gringos” to raise their hands, thereby singling them out. o During a discussion about illegal immigrants coming to the United States from Mexico, he referenced someone who said “Even blacks wouldn’t want their jobs” and had no qualms openly laughing at the remark. o He labeled all Asians as polygamists. o We discussed the disappearance of individuals in Argentina during the 1970’s and their eventual killings. Professor Borjas raised the controversial argument previously stated by the government of Argentina. The argument stated that the bodies that had washed up on shore were not Argentines, but Asians. The professor agreed, stating that the decomposed bodies resemble Asians. o Singled one student out because she is Chinese. o Singles students out for not being able to speak Spanish. o Hand-picked who he believed were the most attractive students in class to partake in the filming of a video, while at the same time telling who he believed to be less attractive students to sit on the other side of the classroom where they would not be seen. o General ignorance and disregard of politically correct language both in and out of the classroom.

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Privacy violations o Posted the attendance record via projector in front of the class, publicly displaying students’ individual grades with their full names listed next to them. o He told one student via telephone other students’ grades. o Intimidated students into signing a release for him to have full use of a 30second video shot at the beginning of one class period. o Failed to maintain a professional distance from his students.  Contacting students outside of the classroom by phone for social purposes.  Has given students the impression that he will act vengefully against them should they oppose him or compromise his reputation in any way, leaving some students wary of their own safety. On one occasion, the Professor aggressively humiliated and intimidated an STS employee, in front of his students, who failed to fix a classroom projector.

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Accusation of Plagiarism o After he was presented with a group video project, he openly accused the group of receiving technical and creative help from a production agency, in front of the entire class, without any rational basis for his claims.  After meeting with the professor and clearing up any doubts of plagiarism, the students continued to feel accused of not producing their original work.

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Lack of Professionalism in Classroom Behavior o Use of humiliation to intimidate students during class. o Hiring scantily dressed Latin female performers to introduce himself during the first class. Embarrassing students and himself during class by dancing in front of an audience that included former ambassadors, Elliot School representatives, and other non-affiliated persons. o Conducive to chaotic situations; failed to provide an organized form of transportation to an off-campus event and instead distributed taxi fare to students and expected them to meet him at the designated location. o Demonstrated erratic behavior; ripped up a large amount of money from his own pocket to prove a point. o Offering students not involved in the class monetary bribes to vacate a library common area so that he could hold a group meeting. o Demonstrated a lack of familiarity with intricate course material on which the class was based:  Students were better prepared than he on many of the topics discussed in class.  Unable to adequately respond to many student questions.  Because the class was primarily speaker-based, when a speaker had not been scheduled to come and/or the TA was unavailable to lecture the students the professor was unable to sufficiently lead the class.  Inability to articulate thoughts and lectures in an organized and structured fashion.

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Class Structure o The class did not meet for three weeks in a row for a class that meets just one day a week o Required students to attend events that were not held during class time even though he hadn’t given sufficient notification and penalized them for not attending.  Students who emailed him beforehand to excuse themselves were not given exceptions. o Failed to follow many of the guidelines set out in the syllabus

Has revealed plans to use unethical grading methods to evaluate 75% of the students’ performance by using “secret informants” within each group to gather information regarding student participation and distribution of the project workload. o Made numerous promises to the students about guest speakers, including Hillary Clinton, who were supposed to come to speak to the class yet this never materialized. 