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Comment by Shacklz | Hacker News Reader

Here's also a statement by the HSG regarding the article in the NZZ: https://www.unisg.ch/de/wissen/newsroom/aktuell/rssnews/camp...

According to the statement, the student tried "to force his re-acceptance to the phd-program with legal and political means".

To be honest, I'm not quite sure what to make out of the whole situation (as a Swiss, originally from the area of St. Gallen, where the school is).

I would be heavily surprised if the HSG would let itself pressure to the effects that the headline of the article insinuates. The school has a bit of a reputation in engineering circles as "useless MBA graduates factory", but being beholden to Chinese interests? That seems quite the stretch to me.

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Replying to the university's claim directly:

> Der Wunsch der ehemaligen Betreuerin, sich klar zu distanzieren, ist nachvollziehbar, wenn ein Rassismus-...

"Nachvollziehbar" mag sein, wenn -- warte mal, was war das da mit dem "Rassismus"?

> ...Vorwurf im Raum steht.

Nein. Wenn was "im Raum steht" ein blosser "Vorwurf" ist, dann erwewist die ehemalige Betreuerin sich mit ihrer übereilten Distanzierung als Vollblut-Arschloch.

For you non-German-speakers, in (my personal translation into) English:

> The wish of the ex-advisor to clearly distance herself is understandable, when racism...

"Understandable" may be, if -- wait a minute, what was that about "racism"?

> ...has been alleged.

No. If this "racism" has only "been alleged", then the ex-advisor, in her over-eagerness to distance herself, reveals herself to be a pure-bred asshole.

From https://www.nzz.ch/english/swiss-phd-students-dismissal-spot... :

> The professor said she had informed Gerber that he was no longer allowed to represent himself as a St. Gallen doctoral student on Twitter, because he had deregistered the previous year. «This has nothing whatsoever to do with the issues of China or censorship,» she said. She said it was only an oversight that she had used the plural in referring to «angry emails from China,» despite receiving only one email – and that one originating from Canada. She had wanted to make it clear that further reactions could be expected. The phrase «I would have to end our advisory relationship» had referred to the informal advice she had provided «at the doctoral student's request,» she said. The fact that Gerber had continued to be listed as a student on the St. Gallen website until the end of March was due simply to an oversight, she added.

Yeah, right. Every little piece of evidence that the University, and this professor in particular, is twisting the truth is just "an oversight", "making it clear", "informal advice", and another "oversight", which all of course have "nothing whatsoever to do with the issues of China or censorship". Rings soooo true... Not. (So thanks a whole lot for the downvote, that's always such a convincing counterargument.)

BTW, for those of us who can read German, here's an archived copy of the original: https://archive.is/l433X

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