Students at the University of California Los Angeles who demanded the firing of a professor who had refused to cancel a final exam following the death of George Floyd.
Students at the University of California Los Angeles are demanding the firing of a professor who had refused to cancel a final exam following the death of George Floyd.
Professor Gordon Klein of UCLA's Anderson School of Management was doxxed by students when he declined to allow minority students to skip the final exam over grief apparently caused by the death of Floyd, according to the Washington Examiner.
"Thanks for your suggestion in your email below that I give black students special treatment, given the tragedy in Minnesota," Klein reportedly wrote in an email.
"Do you know the names of the classmates that are black? How can I identify them since we've been having online classes only? Are there any students that may be of mixed parentage, such as half black-half Asian? What do you suggest I do with respect to them? A full concession or just half?"
A UCLA senior named Preet Bains started a Change.org petition that requested the university to fire Klein for that response.
"We ask for your support in having Professor Klein's professorship terminated for his extremely insensitive, dismissive, and woefully racist response to his students' request for empathy and compassion during a time of civil unrest," the petition says.
As of Sunday morning, nearly 20,000 people had signed the petition.
"Some students have asked that the final exam be delayed or changed or waived altogether," Klein said in another email.
“Life deals all of us challenges and I have no doubt that many of you are facing some now. In a perfectly fair world, I would be able to take these individual factors into account and perhaps modify the terms in our course syllabus, but my understanding of university rules is that, with rare exceptions, I should not.”
On the other hand, an education professor at UCLA name Tyrone Howard decided to heed the desires of his class and instead asked his students to write a one-page paper on how they feel about "what is going on in the nation right now."
"In lieu of your final paper, I would like everyone to submit a 1 page reflection (double or single spaced). I just want you to respond to these two simple questions: ‘What do I make about what is going on in the nation right now?' and ‘How am I doing right now?'" Howard said in an email.
A UCLA student released updated information on Klein, which seems to indicate that the professor was suspended from his post as a result of the backlash he received.
Protests and riots have erupted following the death of George Floyd. Four officers were fired as a consequence, and one has been charged with second-degree murder while the others were charged with aiding a murder.
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