The University of Massachusetts removed an accounting professor from fall classes after she showed students a parody video of the war drama film Downfall, which centers on Adolf Hitler’s final days in his underground bunker.
A professor at the university since 2006, Catherine Lowry made a tradition of offering extra credit for parody videos that integrated subject matter from lectures. Colleagues at UMass have defended Lowry’s actions, with one professor suggesting she “cares deeply about her students.”
That didn’t keep the college from punishing the professor for showing two videos that made several students feel uncomfortable. The first video, parodying the song Bust Down Thotiana, was removed from YouTube after some students found the video “derogatory toward women.” The Downfall parody video remains on YouTube.
Students were upset by a line in the Downfall parody clip that joked about the mass killing of people in gas chambers at the hands of Nazis: “Don’t you dare finish that sentence, or I’ll send you to a chamber. And it won’t be the chamber of commerce. I can guarantee that.”
Lowry emailed students an apology, and a dean spoke with both Lowry and students to explain why the video was inappropriate. There has been no word on whether Lowry is scheduled to teach at UMass in the spring semester.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the university for comment but did not immediately receive a reply.
