Professor Tells Black Student He Fits 'Stereotype Narrative' for 'Lateness'

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — A professor at Fordham University's Upper West Side campus was forced to apologize to a student for bringing up race when he requested an extended deadline.

Tristen Dossett, a black junior at the Fordham College at Lincoln Center, was accused of fitting a stereotype for simply asking his professor for extra time to complete a midterm. The email exchange between Dossett and adjunct professor Heide Morgan Jonassen, which also mentioned the student's "lateness" and "non attendance," was posted to Facebook by one of Dossett's friends, fellow Fordham student Peyton Berry.

“It is really disappointing to see you fall into a stereotype narrative the dominant society expects… your lateness non attendance… now this.

you are better than that Tristen...please do not do this narrative..."

Dossett told student newspaper the Fordham Ram he wasn't the only student to ask Jonassen for an extension, but he was the only student accused of fitting a "narrative."

"The first time I read it, I didn’t think that’s what the words were," Dossett told the Fordham Ram. "When I actually started to dive into the email I recognized what she was saying to me as a black student in America right now, I was hurt very personally. Mostly because I felt that she was misjudging me to the core of my person."

Dossett ended up reporting Jonassen to the university's Title IX office, which is investigating the incident, reported the Fordham Ram.

Jonassen sent this statement to Patch, apologizing for the incident and saying she is "not immune to a bad case of EWLAPA - Entitled White Liberal Assumptive/Presumptive Arrogance":

I was trying to galvanize a student whom I thought was not living up to his enormous potential, and did it in the worst, most insensitive, inappropriate way. I had no intention of causing him pain.
I learned that even for someone with my extensive history of activism and championing of diverse voices in the theater, I am not immune to a bad case of EWLAPA - Entitled White Liberal Assumptive/Presumptive Arrogance.

It's been a painful learning lesson, but one I hope that will be useful in opening up a deep dialog about intent and impact.

The tone of her initial apology to Dossett was more lukewarm. After Dossett posted the initial email exchange to social media and involved the Title IX office, Jonassen tol him she was sorry he "took offense to what was meant to be a true expression of concern." That email exchange was also posted to Facebook by Dossett's friend.

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