After previous meetings with university administrators, a former Saxon Suites resident assistant plans to meet with Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams about the termination of his employment.
Jose Manaiza, a third-year economics student, said he has had meetings with Robert Naples, assistant vice chancellor for student affairs and Janina Montero, vice chancellor for student affairs, but he is unsatisfied with their decision not to reinstate him.
UCLA spokeswoman Lauren Bartlett said that because it was a personnel issue, the university would not comment on the case.
Manaiza was fired from his position as Saxon E building RA in early March. He said he has had difficulties with his supervisors dating back to October and he had been hired last year by a different supervisor, who was reassigned to another building this year.
“They did not provide me with any reason as to why I’ve been released,” he said, adding that he was told the decision made by the Office of Residential Life was final.
Since his release, his former position has been filled. He now lives in the university apartments,
Jim Richman, Manaiza’s mentor and former soccer coach, attended the meeting with Montero and said the focus was more on how to help Manaiza finish his education at UCLA.
“They didn’t really want to talk about getting Jose’s job back as an RA,” he said.
He said Manaiza took his role as RA very seriously and was surprised by the criticism from his supervisors, which Richman said he felt was not meant to be constructive.
“According to Jose, (his supervisor) made some accusation that Jose was harassing female students, (but) there was no documentation,” Richman said, adding that he encouraged Manaiza to document each incident with his supervisors.
He said the nature of the comments made Manaiza distraught and affected his studies.
“Jose felt (his supervisor) personally attacked him because Jose was from another culture and maybe he just didn’t get it or belong as an RA,” Richman said.
Manaiza said he formally filed a complaint with the university regarding his work environment, which included allegations of harassment, mistreatment and intimidation, and that his supervisors then continued to threaten him. After he was fired, his appeal was denied by ORL.
Since his release, Saxon residents, along with other students, have created a Facebook group, and online petitions calling for his reinstatement as RA have collected over 600 signatures.
UCLA alumnus Nima Ghazai said in a previous interview that he knew Manaiza through their involvement in Campus Crusade for Christ and he was not asked to create the group, but did so because he thought ORL’s decision was morally reprehensible.
“Anything less (than his reinstatement) is unacceptable,” Ghazai said.
Manaiza said the encouragement from his residents has been his inspiration for continuing to pursue his complaint.
“The most important aspect is that I have the support of my residents. … All this support shows that I was doing and fulfilling my job,” Manaiza said.
Manaiza said in addition to being reinstated, he wants university administrators to conduct a “mutual and holistic investigation” into the “inconsistencies” regarding his termination and the claims against his supervisors.
“I just want to make sure that this issue is addressed,” he said. “I want the chancellor and the human relations department to take this case seriously because this concerns everyone on campus.”
He said his experience is a “perfect example” of the gap between students and administrators and he said he intends to try to prevent similar incidents by running for Undergraduate Students Association Council president next year.
If his case is not concluded after his meeting with Abrams, Manaiza said, he plans to publicize his case to the media, which he has previously resisted because he wanted to resolve it internally.
“Many students have been contacting people from the media. It will look really bad on UCLA to expose this story,” he said.