Professor Apologizes for Tweeting That Fat Students Won’t Finish Dissertations

[Updated (6/3/2013, 7:47 p.m.) to include details from the University of New Mexico’s statement.]

Geoffrey F. Miller, a visiting professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, has apologized after inciting a furor by suggesting that obese Ph.D. students lack the willpower to finish a dissertation, New York magazine reported.

In a tweet on Sunday that he deleted after sending it, Mr. Miller wrote, “Dear obese PhD applicants: If you don’t have the willpower to stop eating carbs, you won’t have the willpower to do a dissertation. #truth.” His tweet set off a torrent of public criticism. Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at NYU, called Mr. Miller’s comments “astonishing.”

Mr. Miller, who is visiting NYU from the University of New Mexico, where he is an associate professor of psychology, apologized for what he called his “idiotic, impulsive, and badly judged tweet.” He added that his comment “does not represent the selection policies of any university, or my own selection criteria.”

In a written statement on Monday evening, the University of New Mexico said it was “deeply concerned” about the impact of Mr. Miller’s comment, which it said “in no way reflects the policies or admission standards of UNM.”

The university added that the chair of its psychology department, Jane Ellen Smith, had contacted Mr. Miller about the incident. “He told her that his comment on Twitter was part of a research project,” the university’s statement said. “We are looking into the validity of this assertion, and will take appropriate measures.”