Northwestern distances itself from former lecturer after controversial op-ed urging Jill Biden to drop ‘Dr.’ title – By Devan Cole, Sarah Mucha and Arlette Saenz (CNN) / Dec 13 2020
Washington (CNN) Northwestern University is distancing itself from a former lecturer who called on incoming first lady Jill Biden to stop using the “Dr.” honorific because she has a doctorate in education, not an MD.
The school said in a statement on Saturday that it disagrees with the “misogynistic views” of Joseph Epstein, an author and former professor at the Illinois school who wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Friday that Biden should drop the “Dr.” because it “sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic.”
Addressing Biden as “kiddo,” Epstein wrote in part: “A bit of advice on what may seem like a small but I think is a not unimportant matter. Any chance you might drop the ‘Dr.’ before your name?”
Epstein, the university said, has not been a lecturer there since 2003 — clarifying Epstein’s statement in the piece that he had “taught at Northwestern University for 30 years without a doctorate or any advanced degree.”
