Rogue Academics

In an aptly titled opinion piece, "The joke's now on Malaysia" by the Star's Group Editor in Chief, Datuk Wong Chun Wai, he cited many instances of religious over-zealousness by our country's administrators as well as the leaders of PAS which is making Malaysia the brunt of international jokes.

However, there was one example which caught my attention, which I've not picked up any where else (if someone has the full story to this, let me know ;)). Apparently a dean from the business faculty of a top Malaysian public university "makes alleged spot checks during lectures to check on the dressing of female students."

Students who he perceives are wearing tight T-shirts or blouses are singled out. At least on one occasion, they were asked to bend down to see whether parts of their bodies would be exposed.

OMG! In any self-respecting university of the modern world, the act will have constituted sexual harrassment which will only mean a disgraceful end to his career. Many have been fired for doing or saying much less!

As rightly pointed out by Datuk Wong, "a university is not a high school and it is not the dean’s job to worry about students’ dressing. It’s their academic performance and his – whether he has produced enough research and articles for international journals – he should be worried about."

Or maybe the dean is just performing research for his new business or management study on the impact of tight T-shirts and exposed bodies (after bending down, no less) on female purchasing patterns.

This Dean should certainly be sacked. And he should be made to apologise publicly to the students and university. Anything less will just be a disgrace to the Management and reputation of the "top university".