A UCLA professor who was briefly suspended after declining a request that Black students get easier final exams after George Floyd’s death sued the school Wednesday, accusing it of defamation and loss of financial opportunities.
Gordon Klein, a lecturer at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management who has taught there for decades, filed the lawsuit in state court against the school’s dean, Antonio Bernardo, the University of California Board of Regents, and a host of unnamed “co-conspirators.”
“I did this because the school has continued to retaliate against me, and other scholars are facing retaliation, and I thought it was important for someone to step up and say, ‘enough,’” Mr. Klein told The Washington Times. “I have the legal skills and training to do so, so I’m stepping up.”
Mr. Bernardo and the others effectively organized a smear campaign against Mr. Klein after he turned down a “non-Black” student’s request that Black students in his class be given “no harm” final exams because of emotional turmoil Floyd’s death may have caused, the lawsuit alleges.
Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Bernardo declined to comment on the suit.
UCLA said it “has general procedures and principles that uphold freedom of expression and freedom of intellectual inquiry while also facilitating a learning, working, and living environment that is free from discrimination, harassment or retaliation.”
Following Floyd’s killing by a Minneapolis policeman in May 2020, an organized campaign began at UCLA known as “Letter Writing for Finals Accomodations for Black Students,” in which professors were urged to offer what amounted to preferential treatment to...
