Professor Gerard Horgan will take Professor Molchanov’s place in teaching comparative politics this semester because of an incident with a student that occurred last week.
Molchanov will not be teaching anymore of his classes this semester as part of the disciplinary procedure, said communications director Jeffrey Carleton.
Last week, third-year student Robert Young was kicked out of the class by Molchanov after making a joke.
Molchanov accused Young of having a mental disability and asked him if he needed to go see a doctor before forcing the student to leave.
After leaving, Molchanov continued to insult Young by saying, “having a disability is not an excuse for rude behaviour and if you’re unable to function properly in society you should be in an institution.”
An investigation was launched by the university after complaints came in from students.
Professor Horgan reassured the class today that he will use the same syllabus and schedule.
“For the department, myself and I’m sure Molchanov, the greatest concern is that it effects all of you as little as possible,” said Horgan.
Carleton said the situation was out of the ordinary, but the administration acted as quickly as possible.
“We have a strong academic culture where the students and the professors want the same thing: high quality education. And part of that is being respectful to each other,” said Carleton. “In these particular circumstances we found things that were unacceptable to the university, we moved quickly and we tried to act in the best interest of the student that was involved, the class but also maintaining our standards for conduct in the classroom.”
Attempts to reach Molchanov and Young have not been successful at this time.
