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ASU pulls job offer from newly appointed Cronkite journalism school dean

The decision comes after several of Sonya Forte Duhé's students came forward earlier this week to bring her past remarks to light.

PHOENIX — Arizona State University's journalism school pulled its offer from its newly appointed dean.

The decision comes after past treatment of students – specifically students of color – came to light earlier this week.

Sonya Forte Duhé currently works at Loyola University In New Orleans.

She was set to become dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication on July 1.

However, nearly two dozen current and former students told ASU's newspaper, the State Press, that Duhe has an alleged history of racist and homophobic remarks

ASU spent the week investigating the allegations and on Sunday made the decision to pull Duhé's offer.

The journalism school tweeted about the decision, saying, "The Cronkite School remains committed to being a diverse, equitable and inclusive school.”

ASU Provost Mark Searle said in a statement that an interim dean will be named until a new permanent dean is chosen.

Here is Searle's full statement:

"After a national search led by an excellent search committee, we had selected Dr. Sonya Duhé to lead the Cronkite School as Dean and as CEO of the KAET Public Television station. At the time we had high confidence we had selected the right person for the position. Subsequently, issues and concerns have arisen and additional information has come to light. I now find that the future of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and our public television station will be better served by not advancing with Dr. Duhé as their leader. I have advised Dr. Duhé of my decision and I wanted the members of the faculty, staff and students of the Cronkite School to know immediately that this has been done.  

 A week ago, President Crow called upon the ASU community to accelerate “the rate of enhanced social justice.” This development regarding the Cronkite Dean is most unfortunate but we now must turn our attention to meeting that challenge and ensuring we offer the highest level of journalism education. These are significant undertakings, but I am confident with commitment and effort the School can be the leader it aspires to be in all aspect of journalism education.  

I will be appointing an interim dean this coming week and will announce that as soon as I have concluded that process."

Loyola will not rehire Duhe as director of the School of Communication in Design, the Times-Picayune reported Monday

The university said she will not be coming back to the university in any capacity, the paper reported.

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