#Duquesne University professor on leave after apparently using slur repeatedly in class

A Duquesne University professor has been placed on paid leave after he was caught using the “N-word ” repeatedly during a recent online educational psychology class.

Audio that appeared to be from the class was posted to Twitter.

“I’m giving you permission to use the word, okay? Because we’re using the word in a pedagogical sense,” he appears to tell the class.

“What’s the one word about race that we’re not allowed not allowed to use?” he is heard asking in the tweeted audio.

When greeted with silence from his students, he blunders on, “I’ll give you a hint. It starts with ‘N.’”

More silence.

“Again, I’m not using it in any way other than to demonstrate a point.”

He then goes on to say the word himself, and describe some of its common, derogatory uses from “when I was a young man.”

“Could we do that now guys?” he asks. “No,” a few students can be heard responding. “Absolutely not,”  he agrees.

The private, Catholic university in Pittsburgh, Penn., told CBS News that Shank has been placed on paid leave pending an investigation.