To the Editor:
In her explanation of why international students represent a disproportionately high number of academic code violations brought before the Academic Code Committee in last Wednesday's article ("U. explains academic code to int'l students," Sept. 21) Kathleen McSharry, associate dean for writing and dean for issues of chemical dependencies, said, "In some Asian cultures today, being a good student means basically reproducing what authorities have said about things without assuming to assert your own opinion about it."
As Asian students from Singapore and Hong Kong studying at Brown, we find this remark to be deeply offensive. Perhaps McSharry could clarify exactly which "Asian cultures" these are. She could also share with us what level of understanding she has of the many different education systems in Asia in order to qualify her to make such a sweeping statement. In addition, we feel that her statement only furthers negative stereotypes of Asian students and harms the standing of Asian students in the eyes of the Brown community.
It is not too much of a stretch to say that Brown, with its 9 percent acceptance rate, accepts only "good students" from its pool of applicants. Going by McSharry's line of reasoning, this might mean that students from "some Asian cultures" are here at Brown only because they have succeeded in "reproducing what authorities have said about things without assuming to assert (their) own opinion about it."
Kai Herng Loh '14
Larry Au '14
