UCLA Lecturer’s Lawsuit Against University Administration To Go to Trial
A UC Los Angeles lecturer’s lawsuit against the University of California and the UCLA administration will go to trial in April 2023 following a recent court ruling.
The lecturer, Gordon Klein, filed the lawsuit in September 2020 against the Dean and John E. Anderson Chair in Management of the UCLA Anderson School of Management, Antonio Bernardo, and the UC Board of Regents. The lawsuit alleges that his employment contract was breached following an incident in June 2020, amid nationwide protests against police brutality, when Klein emailed his class, denying his Black students the grading accommodations that they had requested in consideration of their wellbeing.
“Do you have any idea if any students are from Minneapolis? I assume that they probably are especially devastated as well,” Klein said in the email, acquired by the Daily Bruin. “I am thinking that a white student from there might possibly be even more devastated by this, especially because some might think that they’re racist even if they are not.”
Following the email, Klein was put on administrative leave for several months and reinstated in September 2020, after which he soon filed the lawsuit, according to the Daily Bruin. On March 30, the court gave a tentative ruling on the motions and proceeded with some of the allegations — one being that the Regents retaliated against Klein by putting him on administrative leave — and dismissed others. A jury trial is scheduled for April 17, 2023.
UC Riverside Receives $1 Million Grant To Support First-Generation Students
UC Riverside will be receiving a $1 million grant over the course of five years as part of its participation in the Kessler Scholars Collaborative, a program that financially and academically supports first-generation, limited-income students throughout college.
The first class of 20 Kessler Scholars will be admitted in Fall 2023, Assistant Vice-Provost of Undergraduate Education Thomas Dickson said in a UC Riverside article.
“The grant will expand on our existing efforts from the TRIO and First-Gen Initiatives offices in supporting first-generation students,” Dickson told the university news.
The grant period is from June 2022 to June 2027, during which UCR will devote at least $400,000 to direct student aid, according to the UCR website.
UCR’s participation in the Kessler Scholars Collaborative comes as part of its membership with the American Talent Initiative (ATI) — a group of universities that are “dedicated to substantially expanding opportunity and access for low- and moderate-income students.” Ten colleges were chosen from the ATI to participate in the program, and although all nine UCs are part of the ATI, UCR is the only UC among the ATI colleges chosen for the grant.
UC Santa Cruz Utilizes Goats To Combat Wildfire Risk
UC Santa Cruz is bringing herds of goats to their campus to help mitigate wildfire risk. The goats, who arrived on campus last week, will remain until the last week of May.
The goats will graze on vegetation spanning roughly 30 acres and help create vegetation buffers that can slow down wildfires, according to the university’s news center.
“Goats are invaluable for fire management,” UCSC Deputy Fire Marshal Erin Johnson told the university news. “They’ll eat the vegetation right down to a nub.”
UCSC’s campus is in a wildland, urban interface, an area where “natural landscape transitions into a developed environment,” and is susceptible to wildfires when vegetation dries out during the summer. The university annually implements prescribed burns, mowing grasslands and other strategies of wildfire mitigation, and the goats will be utilized in tandem with the other strategies.
UCSC will set up a temporary electric fence to protect the goats from potential predators nearby, such as mountain lions, and a goat herder will supervise the animals day and night.
A version of this article appeared on p. 2 of the April 21, 2022, print edition of the Daily Nexus.
