Claim: A visiting faculty member who included the Julie and Mark vignette as a question in a quiz paper for his students at the COMSATS University Islamabad was suspended following a moral uproar in Pakistan, according to the Express Tribune.
Fact: Official documents show that the faculty member was not suspended but, in fact, terminated from the job.
On 20 February 2023, the Express Tribune posted (archive) on Instagram about an incident where a visiting faculty member was terminated from the COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI) following moral backlash for including the Julie and Mark vignette as a question in an ‘English Comprehension & Composition’ quiz for students of Bachelors of Electrical Engineering (BBE).
The caption of the Express Tribune’s Instagram post reads as follows:
“In a bizarre incident in the country’s federal capital, a lecturer at Comsats University Islamabad has been suspended after giving students a quiz exam that included questions about incest. Social media outrage questioning the standards of Pakistan’s education structure and the need for a system of check and balance in these institutions.”
Background to ‘controversial’ question
It is important to note that the professor did not create this question himself.
The Julie and Mark vignette was presented in a study conducted at the University of Virginia by Jonathan Haidt, Fredrik Björklund, and Scott Murphy. Presented as the honours thesis of Murphy, a social psychology scholar and then-assistant of Haidt, an American social psychologist and professor at the New York University (NYU), it was co-authored by Björklund, who is a professor and supervisor at the Lund University’s Department of Psychology.
According to the 10 August 2000, the primary motive for the research was to examine the question, “Are moral judgments based on reason, or on intuition and emotion?”
The three concluded that their hypothesis and prediction were “supported” and that “this phenomenon — the stubborn and puzzled maintenance of a judgment without supporting reasons — was dubbed ‘moral dumbfounding’.”
The research appeared in the Judgment and Decision Making, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making (SJDM) and the European Association for Decision Making (EADM). Moreover, Judgement and Decision Making (JDM) is a field of study that concerns the normative, descriptive, and prescriptive analysis of human judgments and decisions.
As of 2023, the journal — which covers “relevant content from several fields, including cognitive psychology, experimental economics, and experimental philosophy” — is published by the Cambridge University Press & Assessment.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check browsed through the CUI’s website and social media accounts and came across a press release (archive), as well as a letter of termination issued 5 January 2023. The press release was also provided in Urdu here (archive).
The website opens to the following pop-up message:
“Announcement
COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI) Response on Controversial English Composition Quiz
Press Release CUI”
“Keeping in view the severity of the matter, the services of visiting faculty were immediately terminated, and he was blacklisted for any future employment at CUI,” the press release states.
COMSATS University Islamabad also uploaded the letter of termination (archive) served to the lecturer, writing:
“Pursuant to approval of the Worthy Rector, it is to inform that your services as Lecturer (visiting faculty) have been terminated from CUI, Islamabad Campus w.e.f., 05-01-2023. Further, you are hereby blacklisted for future employment at COMSATS University Islamabad.”
In its response to the Ministry of Science and Technology, the university wrote, “I am directed to refer to the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) letter No. 1(10)/2023-DIR-M(S&T) dated January 19, 2023, on the above subject and to convey that action on the matter has already been taken and the service of Mr. [name redacted], Lecturer (Visiting Faculty) has been terminated w.e.f. January 5, 2023.”
“Furthermore, Mr. [name redacted] has also been blacklisted for future employment at COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI). A copy of his termination letter is enclosed, for reference,” the CUI added.
The claim that the faculty member was suspended is, therefore, misleading; the lecturer’s services were terminated.
Soch Fact Check has redacted the name of the faculty member in question due to safety concerns.
Virality
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the seven-day period from 16 February 2023 to 23 February using the following search terms:
- “Comsats suspended”
- “Comsats University Islamabad”
The first search term turned up 14 Facebook posts and eight Instagram posts, which garnered 526 interactions and 34,033 interactions, respectively. The second search term yielded 62,470 interactions and 124,207 interactions across 1,071 Facebook posts and 52 Instagram posts, respectively.
The misleading content also appeared on the verified Facebook pages of MangoBaaz (archive) and Express Tribune (archive), whereas Daily Pakistan (archive) published the same on its website.
Other Facebook posts can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On Instagram, the misleading content was shared by Hello Pakistan (archive), a verified account, as well as here, here, here, here, here, and here. The post by the Express Tribune has already reached more than 4,200 people.
Conclusion: The faculty member was not suspended but terminated from the job, according to official documents.