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After more than a month of investigation, UNM has decided to censure a controversial psychology professor for a fat-shaming post on Twitter.
According to a press release issued by the University on Tuesday afternoon, UNM has formally censured Geoffrey Miller, an associate professor at UNM who was a visiting professor at New York University, “for misrepresenting to his department chair and colleagues the motivation” for his tweet.
On June 2, Miller gained worldwide attention after he tweeted: “Dear obese Ph.D. applicants: if you don’t have the willpower to stop eating carbs, you won’t have the willpower to do a dissertation. #truth.” Miller then said the tweet was part of a psychology experiment that he was conducting.
A subsequent investigation by New York University ruled in late June that research involving human subjects needed prior approval by universities, and so the tweet was not part of a scientific study. But NYU did not terminate Miller’s stay, which lasted until Aug. 1, because “tweets were not research with human subjects as defined by the federal government.”
One week later, UNM’s Institutional Review Board likewise ruled that there was no evidence that the tweet was part of a scientific research.
“Specifically, the committee determined that there were no clear research questions or hypotheses, systematic methods for collecting quantitative and/or qualitative data were absent, and that criteria for selecting respondents were unclear, at best,” stated the UNM IRB memo, which was released June 26.
Miller apologized for his tweet.
“Obviously my previous tweet does not represent the selection policies of any university, or my own selection criteria,” he said in a tweet. “Sincere apologies to all for that idiotic, impulsive, and badly judged tweet.”
According to the press release, UNM has censured Miller for violating policies in the University’s Faculty Handbook. Specifically, UNM found that Miller has disobeyed the handbook’s “Vision, Mission, Values” and “Rights and Responsibilities at the University of New Mexico” policies. He also violated the 1987 Statement on Professional Ethics as specified in the handbook.
Miller’s censure is a “severe penalty as it places restrictions on the regular activities of the faculty member,” according to the release. Miller will be forbidden from serving on admissions committees for graduate students of psychology at UNM. The chair of the psychology department will also be required to “monitor” Miller’s work.
Miller will have to work with faculty advisers of the department’s diversity organization to develop a sensitivity training program regarding obesity. Miller will also receive a faculty mentor with whom he will meet regularly for the next three years to discuss “potential problems.”
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The censure also requires Miller to “apologize to the department and his colleagues for his behavior,” according to the release.
But according to the release, Miller will be able to appeal the censure to the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences upon his return to UNM in the upcoming fall semester.
Miller did not return calls and did not respond to emails from the Daily Lobo by press time.
UNM psychology department chair Jane Ellen Smith also investigated Miller’s activities and “found no evidence Miller had discriminated against people who are overweight,” according to the release.
To address concerns about obesity on campus, Smith will bring “an obesity stigma expert to UNM to help educate the community on this important issue,” the release stated.
Smith declined to be interviewed and to comment further on the investigation or the censure of Miller.
In the release, UNM President Robert Frank said the University does not discriminate against obese applicants.
“Dr. Miller’s tweet in no way reflects the admissions policy of UNM,” Frank said.
Miller will teach a class titled “Psychology of Human Sexuality” at UNM in the fall.
