Canadian lecturer dropped from 2 universities for his disturbing paper

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A sessional engineering lecturer is reportedly no longer teaching at the University of Guelph and the University of Waterloo after publishing a paper that argues the difficulties of dating from a male perspective with numerous sweeping claims, including that “girls” make “strange excuses for rejection” and feminism is “getting out of control,” Toronto Star reports.

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The paper, titled “On the Challenges of Dating and Marriage in the New Generations” was published in December 2023 and was reportedly sent to administration at the University of Waterloo by a student late last month.

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It makes broad statements regarding gender stereotypes and cultural and psychological factors affecting dating and marriage, relying mostly on the author’s experience.

Presented as an “article in the areas of anthropology, sociology, and psychology,” the paper begins by saying the “Challenges reported in this paper are realistic because they are based on the experiences of real people including me, my family, my friends, others, and the people I have talked to or have interacted with in my life so far,” a standard that would not meet the criteria for peer-reviewed publications in the related fields.

A footnote attached to that introductory sentence notes that the author is 30-years-old. He has not been named due to mental health concerns, per GuelphToday. The introduction also adds that the paper is “based on real experiences and it tries to enumerate the problems and challenges that new generations are dealing with for dating and marriage.”

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A bio for the paper’s author at the University of Waterloo notes that he specializes in data science, biomedical engineering and machine learning algorithms.

The paper was not peer-reviewed but was published on PhilPapers, a database of journal articles in philosophy maintained by the Centre for Digital Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario. The paper relies on the author’s experiences, anecdotes and informal discussions, rather than research methodologies or systematic approaches for data collection and analysis with reproducible results that are standard for papers in the social sciences.

According to the Toronto Star, the University of Waterloo first fired the lecturer earlier this month, while the University of Guelph followed suit a week later.

A Guelph university spokesperson told GuelphToday last week that the “university is addressing this matter in accordance with our policies and procedures.”

Some of the headings in the paper include, “SOME GIRLS ENJOY REJECTING BOYS!” “EXAGGERATED IGNORANCE BY GIRLS” and “SOME PEOPLE CARE MORE ABOUT THE NEEDS OF ANIMALS THAN HUMANS!”

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The paper also argues that “trends are showing that bisexuality and homosexuality are increasing compared to heterosexuality” and notes the difficulties faced when seeking romantic relationships within one’s workplace, including professor and student relationships.

“Some countries such as Canada have not banned relationship between professors and students, although there have been some discussions in the University of British Columbia. If it is not forbidden, it is still risky for professors to date students because the student may falsely accuse the professor for sexual harassment in the university, even if it was a simple dating. In such cases, schools usually take the side of students especially if the student is a female,” the paper states, under a section titled “DIFFICULTIES OF HUNTING AT WORK.”

The paper also argues that “girls” give “strange excuses” for declining dating and that “most of the girls are already taken.”

It further adds that “some girls are gold diggers and look for the money or vehicle of the boy.” In a section titled “THE GIRL OR BOY MIGHT WANT YOU ONLY FOR IMMIGRATION!” the paper argues that the “girl/boy who is marrying the immigrant may want their partner merely for
immigration and not for love. They may pretend that they love their partner to fool him/her. Then, when they come to the new country and after their immigration status gets stable, they may easily leave and divorce their partner.”

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The paper has stoked controversy on social media.

Lindsay M. Tedds, associate professor at the University of Calgary’s Department of Economics, posted to X that “Not only should professors not be allowed to date students, no professor should even think it’s appropriate to date a student.”

While the paper does not explicitly argue that professors should be allowed to date students, it highlights some examples of professors who have, including mathematician John Nash, known for his breakthrough work in game theory.

“In some countries such as Iran, marriage – and not dating – is okay and has happened numerously between male professors/lecturers and female students,” the paper adds.

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