File Photo: cnsphoto

 
South China’s Sun Yat-sen University on Wednesday suspended a teacher from his post for an alleged booty call during a break in an online course, which was discovered as his screen was accidentally left open for students to see, and the scandal prompted netizens to call for a stricter ethics threshold for faculty members. 

The university in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province received reports of one of its faculty members Wang Xiaowei’s misconduct during teaching on Monday and his classes were halted as a result after a preliminary investigation, according to a notice the school issued on Wednesday. 

Wang’s behavior was in serious violation of university rules and has been banned from teaching. He will be punished in line with the law and school regulations if more violations were found in following investigations, read the notice. 

The school notice did not specify Wang’s violation but according to screen recording clips circulating online, the teacher forgot to close his screen sharing function during the break and his conversations with a few women regarding booty calls were broadcast to his students. 
Wang is an associate professor at the university’s school of marine sciences.  

Some netizens also recalled an earlier investigation into a teacher from Hubei University, who is suspected of publishing improper online comments supporting Hong Kong separatists and visits to Japan's controversial Yasukuni Shrine years ago.

The public urged universities to conduct stricter evaluation of incoming teachers and implement severe punishment for their misconduct. 

Upon  recruiting a teacher, the university board should not only consider a person’s academic and teaching performance, but also ethics must be taken into consideration since they may have a lot of influence on students whose value systems are still in formation, a net user posted on Sina Weibo. 

Global Times