Some students at the University of California Los Angeles are demanding the firing of professors who refuse to cancel final exams over the death of George Floyd.
Professor Gordon Klein of UCLA’s Anderson School of Management was doxxed by students after he declined to allow minority students to skip the final exams over grief caused by the death of Floyd, a black man who died while in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
“Thanks for your suggestion in your email below that I give black students special treatment, given the tragedy in Minnesota,” Klein reportedly said in an email to a student who requested a final exam reprieve. “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?”
Preet Bains, a UCLA senior, started a Change.org petition asking 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 Thursday afternoon, 18,000 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 to a student. “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.”
Tyrone Howard, an education professor at UCLA, decided to listen to student concerns and waive his class final and instead assign a one-page final paper asking students 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.
Protests, riots, and lootings have broken out across the country since Floyd’s death. Four officers were fired, and one was charged with second-degree murder while the others were charged with aiding and abetting a murder.
