Lauren Duca’s NYU Students File Formal Complaint About Former Teen Vogue Columnist’s ‘Lack of Professionalism’

The author turned teacher’s summer course was “an interesting experience,” according to one student

Lauren Duca
Photo credit: Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images

When it was announced that Teen Vogue columnist and Tucker Carlson foe Lauren Duca was teaching an NYU class called “The Feminist Journalist,” the school’s decision was criticized on Fox News. Now, according to a new report, students who took the class have filed a complaint with the university, saying that among other things, Duca disappeared from the classroom often, targeted one student to the point of making them cry, and spoke too much about her personal life.

According to a Tuesday piece from Buzzfeed that largely outlines Duca’s new book and profiles her, a complaint was filed by some of her students to NYU journalism school’s institute director, Ted Conover, and associate director, Meredith Broussard. A representative did not respond to a request for confirmation or comment.

All ten students signed the complaint, according to Buzzfeed, and five of them spoke to Buzzfeed for the profile, choosing to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisal from Duca, largely known for her public sparring with Fox News’ Carlson, or her professional contacts.

“All of them had similar allegations against Duca and the class’s structure: that Duca didn’t follow her own syllabus, that she spoke often and inappropriately about her personal life, that she would belittle and yell at students, and, most pressingly, that she targeted one student in particular,” according to the piece.

“There was a consistent lack of professionalism that persisted throughout every aspect of the course,” the complaint reads, according to Buzzfeed. “We are disappointed at the department and NYU as an institution for hiring a professor without a syllabus and classroom management skills. We are disappointed at the department and NYU for hiring a professor without a clear course objective.”

Duca did not immediately respond to request for comment, but did tell Buzzfeed, “I created a dynamic, experimental, ever-evolving course structure that pulled from my syllabus, added things in based on our conversation and allowed each of them to individually craft their pieces, and I watched the pieces evolve over the course of the semester. I think that they, on some level, internalized some of the objectives, whether they know that explicitly or not.”

She did tweet Tuesday afternoon plugging her book, “How to Start a Revolution,” and asking critics to read it before “deciding I have no substance.”

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