A U.S. college professor who allegedly told a Vietnamese student she should anglicize her name because he thinks it sounds offensive in English has been placed on leave.

Matthew Hubbard, a mathematics instructor at Laney College in Oakland, told the student in an undated email exchange that she should “anglicize” her name, Phuc Bui Diem Nguyen, as it “sounds like an insult” in English, according to screenshots of the emails posted on social media.

In her first email response, Nguyen stated Hubbard’s request “feels discriminatory” and warned the professor that she would file a complaint if he refused to refer to her by her given birth name.

Despite the student’s warning, Hubbard doubled down and repeated the request.

The professor said her name in English “sounds like [censored] Boy,” he wrote, using a profane English word referring to the act of sexual intercourse.

Phuc Bui is pronounced in a similar fashion to ‘Fook Buoy’ in Vietnamese.

“If I lived in Vietnam and my name in your language sounded like Eat a [censored], I would change it to avoid embarrassment both on my part and on the part of the people who had to say it,” the professor continued, using an English word referring to the male genitalia.

“I understand you are offended, but you need to understand your name is an offensive sound in my language,” he added.

The series of emails was posted by a person who identified herself as the student’s sister, Diem Quynh, on the social networking site Instagram.

“So I’m disgusted and disappointed. Honestly, I really liked Laney College but this teacher had the ignorance and audacity to tell my sister to anglicize her name is disgusting,” she wrote.

As a professor, he “should be trying to learn her name and culture and not try to white wash her name,” she wrote.

“I love that my parents want to keep my culture alive by keeping our Vietnamese name. If you can’t say it then ask.”

The sister also posted a video in which the professor appears to be addressing the student only as “P Nguyen” during a Zoom call.

The screenshots were also posted on social networking site Twitter by another user claiming to be an old high school friend of Phuc Bui Diem Nguyen. The post has since been retweeted more than 47,000 times on the platform.

Diem Quynh’s Instagram post, meanwhile, has garnered more than 33,000 ‘likes.'

Since the screenshots have gone viral, the college’s president, Dr. Tammeil Gilkerson, said in a statement posted to its official website that the school administration is “aware of the allegations of racist and xenophobic messages from a faculty member.”

“We take these allegations seriously and immediately placed the faculty member on administrative leave pending an investigation,” the statement reads.

The president said Laney College has “long stood as both a partner and a leader in the fight for social justice and equity” in its communities.

“We have been firm and outspoken about our mission to educate, support and inspire students to excel in an inclusive and diverse learning environment rooted in social justice,” he added.

He stressed, “We want our students to feel safe and know that we honor their backgrounds, their experiences and everything that makes them unique. They are everything that is beautiful about our college.

“We do not tolerate racism, discrimination or oppression of any kind.”

Hubbard, who has been placed on leave after the incident, told the American weekly news magazine Newsweek that he will wait until the conclusion of the investigation before making his comment.

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