A top academic says she will no longer supervise students at one of the University of Cambridge's prestigious colleges, citing years of racial profiling by the institution's porters.
Priyamvada Gopal, an English professor specialising in colonial and postcolonial literature with 17 years of experience, announced her decision in a series of tweets on Monday.
It prompted widespread support – including from students who claim they've experienced similar discrimination – but also anger and racist abuse on social media.
Gopal's decision followed an incident on Monday in which she was refused entry to the college because of preparations for an event that evening. She dismissed a subsequent investigation by the college – which found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of its staff.
With deep regret but with 17 years of consideration behind it, I have finally decided on my behalf & of other people of colour @Cambridge_Uni to refuse to supervise any students at @Kings_College. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH of the consistently racist profiling & aggression by Porters. 1/2
Citing numerous examples over her years at King's College, she wrote that the college authorities had "failed to elicit any changes" despite her raising the matter.
“I tried to raise the concern with the appropriate head of department and was treated dismissively," Gopal told BuzzFeed News.
Gopal, 49, said she was profoundly sorry to be leaving behind her students, and said it was “with deep regret but with 17 years of consideration behind it" that she had made the decision.
"Where you are in a position to tell them: if you can't be polite to me at the gate, I can't do any work for you, you should," she wrote.
College porters' roles can include controlling entry to colleges, providing security to students, and general maintenance.
Gopal, who is also a fellow of Churchill College, continued: “In my first years at Cambridge I never said anything, because I thought that there was no point and I took it as part of the landscape."
“I feel that there is nothing to be lost by speaking up now,” she added, especially as since tweeting she had been inundated by students recounting their own experiences at the gates of King's College.
“Last year, I and another teacher separately had students coming to tutorials weeping because our building is just behind King’s College; these were students of colour, young women, both of whom had been hassled by the porters and kind of threatened with not being allowed through, which made them late for the supervision, and they arrived at these supervisions crying."
The number of times I was stopped and told I couldn't enter the college I LIVED IN when alone, but was just assumed to be ok when entering with white friends who weren't even at King's or Cambridge at all. https://t.co/R6m0r8uxDv
@PriyamvadaGopal Embarrassed & sorry as a King's student, Priya. Not shocked, sadly. My parents visited recently & my (brown) father was stopped & asked if "you sir" was "with them" (me & my white) mother. He's hard of hearing & so couldn't understand what I did of that situation, luckily.
“It is really hearing the students' stories,” Gopal said, explaining her decision to speak out. “I think that for me it is deciding that this goes well above and beyond me, and it really cannot be allowed to continue.”
The day after she tweeted out her decision, Gopal noted that her complaints had been "exclusively" turned into a discussion around a comment she made regarding her title. She had tweeted to say that the porters insisted on calling her "madam" even after she told them she'd prefer to be called "Dr".
This was NOT about the title, and it is instructive that it is being turned into that and that alone.
“I have probably only seen a very small slice of them,” she said of the numerous abusive and racist tweets sent to her – around 10 of which she retweeted – in the wake of her decision.
“Even though I am fairly strong, I was shocked. But more to the point, I was depressed that the story had been turned into race versus class.
"That exchange was a small part of a larger exchange, and it was one small facet of what I was describing as rude, haranging behaviour," she explained.
"I was struck by the fact that more than one person at the gate of King's refused to address me by my professional title, and so, what is bothering me," she said, "is that this is [being portrayed as] about an arrogant, upper-class Indian woman wanting the servants to treat her properly, and that I think's as far from the truth as possible.”
Gopal said she would like to see the university acknowledge "that there is a problem around both race and class at Cambridge", and that the institution "does both literal and metaphorical gatekeeping".
"There are a lot of people who are not comfortable in this university, a minority but nonetheless a large number, that we cannot continue to be a hostile and alien place for people of colour and working-class students.”
Speaking on behalf of King's College, the University of Cambridge said following an investigation the college had found "no wrongdoing" on behalf of their staff. A spokesperson told BuzzFeed News: "We categorically deny that the incident referred to was in any way racist."
“Every visitor was asked to show their card during the course of that day, as the College was closed to everyone except King’s members," the statement continued. “Non-members such as Dr Gopal were asked to take alternatives routes, around the College. This was a matter of procedure, not discrimination."
Gopal responded to BuzzFeed News, dismissing the university's statement as untrue.
"The thing that is very important to point out is that they issued a statement and cleared themselves of wrongdoing before speaking to me. There could not have been an investigation, because they did not know what the complaint was," she said.
The University of Cambridge declined to provide any further comment.
Earlier this month, figures released to the Financial Times showed that between 2012 and 2016 six of the university's 31 colleges accepted fewer than 10 black or mixed-race students – while some accepted none at all.
Less than 2% of the University of Cambridge's 2016 intake was black, according to statistics from the Higher Education Statistics Agency. The university, in line with national averages, did admit higher proportions of students from Asian and mixed-background minority ethnic groups, the BBC reported.