NC State investigating professor's comments about women

Jena Phillips, an N.C. State senior, was in Jason Staples’ “Religious Traditions of the World” class Monday.

She said that Staples’ comments about women and race were offensive and that she no longer feels safe in his class.

“We strive to be an inclusive environment that provides students with a safe place to learn,” Phillips said. “When I was sitting in that classroom, it did not feel like a safe learning place.”

Staples is a teaching assistant professor in the philosophy and religious studies department.

When he was discussing the history of gender roles in his lecture, Staples said men are physically stronger than women.

“Who cares that I could lift more than probably every female in this room?” Staples said.

He then asked a female athlete how much she can lift.

“I was watching it almost as if it were a TV show,” Phillips said. “I just couldn’t believe what was happening in front of me.”

The student-athlete, who did not want to give her name, told WRAL News she saw Staples' comments as simply part of the lesson.

"The discussion was focused on how ancient religions viewed gender, and Dr. Staples was attempting to portray this in a modern term. These types of discussions are important, because without them it would not recognize the inequalities which were present in the past. That being said, I am a female student in his class, and I have never felt any negative experiences within Dr. Staples lectures," she said.

Phillips said she was offended by a comment that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos would be reincarnated as a woman.

“Well if you’re bad – you are filling yourself with that bad karma – then those bad parts are going to reconstitute as worst stuff,” Staples said. “So Jeff Bezos might have to come back as a woman.”

Phillips said she was also offended when Staples was discussing the history of servants.

“Most of you in this room will hire servants to raise your children – day care workers,” Staples said in the lecture. “You won’t call them servants, but they are lower-class people who probably have a different education. Ultimately, you’re going to hire these people to raise your children until they can get to school age, and then you’re going to pay someone else through your taxes or through some other way to do the same thing in school. These are your servants, essentially.”

Phillips said it was hard to hear Staples belittle education programs.

“It may not have been intentional, but the nature of the comments, at least in my opinion, are offensive,” Phillips said. “Whether he had malicious intent or not, it came across in a way that was not acceptable.”

Staples hadn’t responded to an interview request by Tuesday evening.

In a statement, the dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences said an investigation is underway.

“We take all such concerns seriously and believe it is essential to ensure that students have an inclusive and safe learning environment,” Jeffery Braden said.