Monday, December 14, 2020

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Northwestern wipes ex-lecturer from website after criticizing Jill Biden’s ‘Dr.’ title




Northwestern University wiped one of its former lecturers from the school’s website after he penned a controversial Wall Street Journal editorial arguing First Lady-elect Jill Biden shouldn’t use the title of “Dr.” before her name.

Joseph Epstein had been listed as an “emeritus lecturer of English” on the school’s website earlier Saturday, but the page had vanished later in the day,journalist David Gura noted.

The college also issued a statement saying it “strongly disagrees” with Epstein, who argued Biden should drop the title as she’s not a medical doctor.

“Northwestern is firmly committed to equity, diversity and inclusion, and strongly disagrees with Mr. Epstein’s misogynistic views,” said the university, the Daily Northwestern reported.

The school also noted he “was never a tenured professor at NU and has not been a lecturer here since 2002.”

In the op-ed published Friday, Epstein had argued that it “sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic” for the title to be used by Jill Biden, who has a doctorate in education from the University of Delaware.

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“A wise man once said that no one should call himself ‘Dr.’ unless he has delivered a child,” Epstein wrote.

Epstein also took aim at Northwestern for bestowing honorary degrees to commencement speakers, such as Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers.

“I sent a complaining email to the school’s president about the low quality of such men as academic honorands,” Epstein wrote before bemoaning that the college went to give one to Billie Jean King, who he noted hit tennis balls out to the crowd at graduation.

The op-ed has also been met by a wave of backlash online — including from Biden’s team who called the piece “sexist.”

″You and the @WSJ should be embarrassed to print the disgusting and sexist attack on @DrBiden running on the @WSJopinion page,” Biden’s spokesman Michael LaRosa tweeted at WSJ editorial features editor James Taranto.

“If you had any respect for women at all you would remove this repugnant display of chauvinism from your paper and apologize to her.” 

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