Alexander Coward

Not Adding Up: Math Lecturer Behind Viral Email Set to Lose His UC Berkeley Job

Alexander Coward—the charismatic UC Berkeley math lecturer whose 2013 emailed justification for teaching during a university employees strike went viral—now says he’s about to be fired by the university, despite stellar reviews from his students. 

The university’s response: Personnel matters are confidential, and lecturers such as Coward receive no guarantee that their contracts will be renewed.

Posted on October 12, 2015 - 10:00am

On Anniversary of his Viral Email, Cal Lecturer Reflects on What He’d Change (Not Much)

One year ago, Alexander Coward attained, by sheer accident, what so many others have sought without success—a little slice of Internet fame. The UC Berkeley lecturer did so simply by sending an email to his math students. The email’s journey to stardom began when a student posted it to Facebook; then another posted it to Reddit. At some point it got tweeted, and soon the share-frenzy began. Within 48 hours it had crossed that illusive, magical threshold—it had gone viral.

Posted on November 29, 2014 - 8:44am

Cal lecturer’s email to students goes viral: “Why I am not canceling class tomorrow”

“I email my students all the time—that isn’t unusual,” Alexander Coward tells us. “What is very unusual is for one of those emails to go viral.”

The UC Berkeley’s math lecturer’s surprise is understandable. Among the torrent of listicles, kitty gifs, and youtube clips depicting moderate-to-severe injury that seize the imagination of the Internet daily, an email from a professor to his 800 students about the scheduling details of his class is hardly the stuff that memes are made of.

Posted on November 21, 2013 - 6:36pm

Subscribe to Alexander Coward