Cornell professor’s threat to fail maskless ‘hook-nosed’ student causes backlash

One climate-obsessed professor is finding himself in hot water after an email he wrote surfaced online.

But it’s not the ocean levels that are causing him the most agita: It’s maskless students.

Bruce Monger, a Cornell University professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, apparently sent out a mass email in an attempt to ID two students in a recent Introductory Oceanography class who weren’t wearing their masks — so he can fail them.

“I wanted to ask you for your help in identifying two ocean students who were photographed with their masks off during the ocean class last Friday,” Monger wrote in the memo that was first obtained by the Twitter handle “Libs of TikTok.” “They were sitting next to each other in the balcony’s front row of seating.”

The professor, a 20-year veteran of Cornell and a senior lecturer in oceanography, continued with vivid physical descriptions of the students.

“One student is a male with red hair and a fairly prominent hooked nose,” wrote Monger. “His hair was pretty long (just below the bottom of his ears) and is pretty thick and wavy. He was wearing a blue sweatshirt and was eating something at the time.”

He then proceeded to physically size up student offender No. 2.

“The other student is a male who was sitting to the left of the red head. He has short brown hair maybe 1 – 1/2 to 2 inches in length and small [sic] a nose. He wore a grey hoodie sweatshirt. He spent the whole lecture with his mask down around his chin.”

Monger closed the rant hoping someone will out the students so he can punish their infractions.

“If/when I find the identity of these two students, I will be failing them both for the semester as promised I would in class last Wednesday.”

Cornell has a mandate for all students to be vaccinated and an indoor mask mandate for faculty, staff and students, according to a statement addressing the controversy sent to The Post.

“Dr. Bruce Monger … regularly advised his students of the mask requirement, noting potential consequences for failing to comply,” the statement read.

The school addressed the offensive physical descriptions in Monger’s email plea, noting that he “described the students’ physical characteristics in ways that do not reflect Cornell values. Dr. Monger has since acknowledged that his approach to dealing with unmasked students in class was not handled in an appropriate manner.”