Fordham University Lecturer Fired Over Mixup Of Black Students’ Names, Calls Termination ‘Unjust’

A former Fordham University lecturer who was fired over mixing up the names of two Black students says his termination proceedings were not “justly” carried out. In an email to students after the incident, the lecturer said that the mixup had “nothing to do with race.”

Speaking with The Observer, Christopher Trogan said he was told by Eva Badowska, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Fordham University, that he was placed on immediate suspension after the mixup incident on Sept. 24. Trogan then held a Zoom meeting with Badowska and a union representative by Oct. 5, and his termination notice was delivered Oct. 25. “Badowska may have carried things out legally, but definitely not morally and certainly not justly,” Trogan said.

The incident took place during a Composition II class taught by Trogan, who was an English Department lecturer. Trogan mixed up the names of two Black students who walked into class late, Fox News reported.

The involved students emailed Trogan after the class, letting him know they felt “disrespected.” The students told Trogan they felt they were mixed up because of their race, according to The Observer. Trogan called the mixup an “innocent mistake” and responded by sending a 9-page email to his students in two sections of the Composition II class.

In the email, he said: "The offended student assumed my mistake was because I confused that student with another Black student. I have done my best to validate and reassure the offended student that I made a simple, human, error. It has nothing to do with race."

One of the students whose name was mixed up, told the outlet anonymously that Trogan confused their names wrong over the course of four classes.

“I did not feel heard because every time he (misnamed me) I would tell him, and it just seemed like he would brush it off or that he did not care,” the student said.

Chantel Sims, the other student involved in the mixup, said Trogan’s response to the matter “seemed a little excessive, like all you need to do was say sorry and it would have been fine.” Sims said a portion of the email Trogan sent to students noted “everything he has done for minorities.”

In another email to students sent Oct. 29, Trogan said the university did not inform him “of the charges against me, nor the nature of the investigation of which I was the subject,” Fox News reported. Trogan said Badowska did inform him the basis of his termination was the email sent to students on the day of the incident.

In a statement to New York Post, Fordham spokesman Bob Howe said the university “takes personnel matters very seriously,” adding that "media representations regarding this issue do not reflect the facts in Dr. Trogan’s case.”