A biology quiz at Gettysburg College turned political when one of the questions described President Donald Trump as a eugenicist, because, the quiz explained, he thinks “he has good genes.”
The quiz was prepared by Betty Ferster, an adjunct professor of biology at the Pennsylvania college, said Young America’s Foundation (YAF), a non-profit.
According to documents obtained by YAF, Ferster wrote in the graded quiz that “Trump thinks he’s smart because his uncle was an MIT professor and healthy because he has good genes – we don’t know if he’s healthy, they haven’t released the results of his last check-up.”
Ferster concluded her answer with “He’s orange,” YAF said.
Students were given a multiple-choice question that read, “Trump is a ____?”
According to Fox News, students were given a point if they chose “eugenicist” as their answer. The quiz explained the term as “the ‘science’ of human improvement through better breeding.”
Anonymous Tip
YAF said an anonymous student informed them about the incident through their Campus Bias Tip Line.
They said the incident took place in the introductory biology class during the Spring 2020 semester.
Dr Ferster is arguably the worst professor at Gettysburg College. She is the by far the prof I’ve had the most displeasure in taking a course with. This is just another incident in recent months that proves how incompetent the administration and staff are at this school.
— Dave Nadeau (@davidnadeau20) October 12, 2020
The question on Trump was the only political one out of five, with the remaining four related to actual biology concepts such as pleiotropy, heritability, and twins.
Professor Has Apologized
A Gettysburg College spokesperson told Fox News that they had looked into the matter after being made aware of it by a “concerned student.”
“Gettysburg College and the instructor both recognize that this incident is inconsistent with our commitment, detailed in our Freedom of Expression Philosophy, to sustain a community in which all members feel their ideas, opinions, and beliefs are respected and protected, even when those ideas are not shared universally,” the spokesperson told Fox News.
The spokesperson added that the professor has acknowledged the incident as “a mistake” and has apologized.
