by Jerika L.H
A former UCD Davis professor is in hot water after screenshots of her questionable Yelp reviews were made public. Professor June Chu, who left Davis in May of 2016 to serve as the Dean of Yale’s Pierson College, has resigned after being called under scrutiny for her online postings. Her Yelp reviews were described as “offensive” and “elitist,” and spanned from recommending a restaurant to “white trash” to calling movie theater workers “barely educated morons.”
Chu earned a Master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from UC Davis, where she also worked as a professor of psychology. Her doctoral research explored discrimination and diversity in therapeutic settings. The cat was metaphorically let out of the bag when Chu herself wrote a college-wide email to notify her students that she had become a “Yelp Elite” member – an exclusive level 
of Yelp membership reserved only for extensively active reviewers. Several students found her actual Yelp account online, and began to release screenshots of her reviews on social media.
Many of Chu’s reviews were criticized for what one Yale student described as “classist attitudes which present poor people, obese people, or those who live in New Haven as somehow below her and unworthy of her presence.” In one post, Chu critiques the body of a fitness trainer and calls out another employee by name, saying, “Seriously, I don’t care if you would lose your job. I am sure McDonalds would hire you.” Ironically, it is Chu who is now unemployed over her numerous aggressive comments, in one of which she complained about the rice in her burrito being cooked improperly. She stated, “I am Asian, I know rice,” and then went on to admit that she threw the replaced burrito away because her brother spit in other people’s food when he worked in restaurants, so she figured the second burrito was contaminated.
Many commenters expressed discontent over Chu’s frequent statements that certain services and foods might be good enough for white people, but are not good enough for her. In another instance, she states that one restaurant is “perfect for those low class folks,” but not on her level.
In other reviews, Chu liberally calls movie goers, theater employees, and even other yelp reviewers “idiots,” as she rails on to say that snack stand workers struggle to add $7 plus $7, and stating, “Be kind my ass.” Other reviews are equally hostile.
Ironically, Chu did not always receive such great reviews from her own students, as one student recalled her as being “very critical” and “unhappy.” Others, however, liked her teaching style and one student praised her insights on the Asian American experience.
This incident has revoked the longstanding argument of free speech on college campuses, as more than a few commenters defended Chu – one stating, “If this is how she wants to express herself in her personal life, that’s her own business. As long as she does not bring that attitude into school, it’s her right.”
Chu issued an apology to students and stated that she has “learned a lot this semester about the power of words and about the accountability that we owe one another.” Her resignation was active immediately.
I like reviews like those.
OMG-ROFLMAO
Bryn Mawr, Harvard and UCD produced this barely literate misanthrope. What an indictment of US universities.
Maybe she’s a great spin instructor, though.
From Yale University’s web site:
” June Chu has taught group exercise classes at Dartmouth College, the University of PA and various private fitness clubs in California and the Northeast. She teaches cardio tone classes, Spinning and is a Les Mills certified Body Combat instructor. At PWG, she teaches Body Blitz, integrating cardio with high rep toning and will happily jump in to teach Spinning when needed. Fun fact: she currently belongs to four separate gyms in the area and likes to stairmaster backwards.”
I have to take exception with this one woman’s choice of on line means of expression as an indictment of US universities. This would be no more accurate than using a single defector as an indictment of the US military or a single policeman shown to engage in racial profiling being an indictment of all US police forces. Where is the concept of individual responsibility ?
Of course it’s not an indictment of U.S. universities. However, given this individual’s chosen field — social psychology, discrimination and diversity in therapeutic settings — and her professional affiliations with organizations focusing on cultural understanding and awareness, I’d say some university professionals had to have missed some clear red flags. The attitudes expressed in her posts reflect an incredible lack of job-related cultural sensitivity and basic compassion. There was an apparent breakdown in the processes for screening and evaluating doctoral candidates and job applicants at several points within the academic community.
Was she actually a UC Davis professor? A friend of mine looked but could find no evidence of that.
It’s really funny although the nastiness of her reviews makes it creepy.
Its possible she’s a good example of a non-violent sociopath. “Sociopath Next Door” describes people like this who seek out professions that give them access to whatever vulnerable group they have a taste for…