Harvard Ombud office takes action
Following mounted-up pressure by Thai neticitizens, the Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM)’s Ombuds Office has agreed to launch an investigation against its Thai lecture who cheated the Thai government on a scholarship.
Dr Padet Pulwittayakij, one of the four guarantors for Dr Dolrudee Jumlongras, revealed in a Facebook post on Thursday night that Dolrudee, who broke the scholarship conditions to work in Thailand and refused to pay back the scholarship money, is being investigated by the Ombuds Office, after email complaints against her were sent to the office.
The case captured attention of Thai online users who have launched a justice campaign against Dolrudee.
As part of the justice campaign, Thai social-media users have been sharing Dolrudee’s photos, her home address, her office address as well as her colleagues’ contact information. They have also set up a petition calling on Harvard to stop supporting her, saying she had taken advantage of taxpayers and the country for the sake of furthering her education. Many lashed out at her using rude language, while others gave her a poor rating and expressed their disappointment on Harvard University’s Facebook page calling for the university to take action against her.
After more than a thousand users began posting comments since last Friday at her post on Olsen Symposium, which contained her picture dating back to April 2011, the post was pulled off on Thursday.
Fuadi Pitsuwan, however, wrote: “On the dentist breaching the scholarship contract, I don’t think we should see it in terms of patriotism or gratitude for the country. Everybody with that level of education knows that being a researcher at such a university will be a better contribution to humanity and Thailand [than at a university in Thailand] … The problem is that she left her guarantors to pay the debt for her without any concrete plans to repay. These are different issues.”
