University officials announced a UCLA law professor as the new diversity vice chancellor Tuesday, more than a year after an internal report found UCLA’s policies and procedures for addressing racial discrimination among faculty inadequate.
Professor Jerry Kang will serve as the university’s first vice chancellor for equity, diversity, and inclusion. He is tasked with focusing on issues of diversity, and will oversee two discrimination prevention officers who were hired in September 2014, the Title IX officer and about 20 diversity specialists at different divisions and schools on campus.
Former California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno headed a report in October 2013 that found UCLA lacked adequate policies and procedures to properly handle cases of discrimination reported by faculty members. Chancellor Gene Block announced the creation of the vice chancellor position that December.
Kang and UCLA could not be immediately reached for comment for this article.
Kang started teaching in the UCLA School of Law in 1995 and also serves as a professor for Asian American studies. He is also associate provost and the inaugural Korea Times – Hankook Ilbo Chair in Korean American Studies and Law.
In an open interview with the campus community Feb. 9, Kang said he wanted to take steps to identify discrimination through statistical evidence and use scholars’ expertise to combat discriminatory behavior at the university.
Kang was the founding co-director of the critical race studies specialization at UCLA. At his open interview, Kang said he thinks implicit biases, stereotypes and favoritism contribute to discrimination at UCLA.
Block and executive vice chancellor and provost Scott Waugh made the final decision to hire Kang after a search committee consisting of UCLA faculty, staff and students suggested three candidates for consideration to the position.
Kang will begin working as the vice chancellor of equity, diversity and inclusion starting July 1.
Compiled by Katie Shepherd, Bruin senior staff.
the bigots are still allowed to hold office so this is just bs
The article states…
“…MORE THAN A YEAR AFTER an internal report found UCLA’s policies and procedures for addressing racial discrimination among faculty inadequate.”
More than a year after the report??? They weren’t exactly rushing to get this done, were they?
You have to wonder – now that UCLA is rated in the top 10 most antisemitic universities in the country – now that the most recent antisemitic disgrace at UCLA was caught on video and went viral – if the bureaucrats responsible for encouraging this bigoted swamp felt that now might be a good time to try and cover their behinds.
Pay attention, students. Here’s how you pretend to do something – without changing a thing!
Another fine “teaching moment” at UCLA.
Just want to make a single point of clarification. To my knowledge, a single blog decided to create a “Top 10 Anti-Semitic Schools” list and decided to put UCLA on it after the recent headline-making anti-Semitic incident. But please don’t label UCLA as an anti-Semitic school, because as an institution it is not, and the Jewish community at UCLA is actually very strong and vibrant. Labeling UCLA as an anti-Semitic school will ultimately do little more than harm the UCLA Jewish community.
You’re just flat out wrong on just about everything you say.
First off, the original website that published the list was “StandWithUs.com” and they published it more than a year ago. They have prominent members, a solid reputation, and after they published the list, it received national recognition from several prominent blogs and newspapers including The New York Times and The Huffington Post. The list was updated in February 2015 and UCLA retains the ninth position.
As far as UCLA being placed on the list because of the most recent antisemitic incident, that too, just isn’t so. Like I said, even before this last incident, UCLA finished ninth on the list. Here is a link to a copy of the current list. Please not that the list not only identifies the universities, it also includes a detailed list of many incidents to back up the allegation.
UCLA did not find itself in the top 10 of most antisemetic schools because of one incident. On the contrary, if you look at the list of incidents that occurred at UCLA, you’ll see that the latest incident didn’t even make the current list. The recent update to the list was put out BEFORE the latest incident. This latest incident only further reinforces an already well-established reputation of bigotry.
Lastly, speaking out won’t “ultimately harm” the Jewish community. That’s just blaming the victim and UCLA was doing that long before I wrote this post. If we don’t speak up, UCLA will continue to add incidents to their checkered past, further destroy the schools reputation, and cast a shadow on everyone associated with it.
So instead of asking me to be silent – instead of misrepresenting the facts – why don’t you take a look at the truth and acknowledge that UCLA has a major problem. Claiming the problem doesn’t exist and blaming the victims are actually the things that will only make it worse.
If you’re feeling some shame for your school and you want to defend it, start by acknowledging the truth: UCLA has engaged in behavior that has made it a national disgrace.
There’s a difference between “speaking up” against anit-Semitism that happens and labeling UCLA as an anti-Semitic campus. TruthRevolt was the blog to which I referred, I would appreciate your providing the StandWithUs link too, as I didn’t find it from a simple google search.
But regardless my main point was that UCLA’s Jewish community is large, strong, and thriving. And so labeling UCLA as an anti-Semitic institution without also noting that it has an amazing Jewish community that is doing well might influence prospective students to disqualify UCLA as a potential choice for college and instead go somewhere else, which would hurt the Jewish community by making it smaller, weaker and less vibrant. So definitely speak up against anti-Semitism that occurs at UCLA and elsewhere, but don’t label the institution as anti-Semitic, because there’s a difference.
Standwithus is and organization dedicated to helping Jews stem the growing tide of antisemitism on college campuses around the world. They pay particular attention to the BDS movement because that movement is antisemitic – they continuously demonize, deligitimize and apply double standards to Israel and Jews. Standwithus’s page on the BDS movement (that displays the top 10 list) is currently under re-construction so the revised list is not currently up. Truthrevolt got the list from them – but as I mentioned above – other respected media outlets have referenced it including the New York Times and the Huffington Post. Here is a link to an article on their site discussing antisemitism on campus.
http://www.standwithus.com/news/article.asp?id=3679
You can read more about them from that link.
Regarding your main point, if the UCLA Jewish community is currently strong and thriving, I’d credit that to a period before the BDS movement and to the Jewish community themselves – certainly not to the current behavior seen on UCLA campus.
And keep in mind, I alone can’t “label” UCLA as an “antisemitic institution”. I can point to numerous and very specific behaviors, incidents and policies at UCLA. I point to specific allegations that demonstrate a pattern of antisemitic behavior. If that “labels” UCLA an “antisemitic institution”, well, if the shoe fits…
The current UCLA Administration, a significant number of faculty members, the student government and a significant number of students have demonstrated a disdain – not merely for Israel – but for all Jews. This is a documented fact.
Ask yourself, why are incidents of antisemitism more prevalent and common at UCLA than at other universities? Compare how Oklahoma U treated an attack on African American students from a frat house, to how UCLA treated an attack on Jewish students from student government members.
What do you think is more egregious and damaging, a racial incident on a bus of frat members, or a racial incident involving the majority of student government?
The faculty and administration did basically nothing about that behavior – it that speaks to where the problem is coming from.
As far as other Jews not wanting to attend UCLA, the way UCLA behaves now, I’m perfectly fine with that. I think the Jewish community should abandon a school with a reputation like this. I think they should give their business and charitable donations to another school – a school that actually takes a strong stand against malicious and bigoted attacks.
Let’s not forgot that 5 members of student government all agreed that Rachel was an “ideal” candidate. But after admitting that, they were seen on video not only discriminating and humiliating her – but they actually took action against her. They voted her down, denying her the opportunity to advance herself and her future – for no other reason than the fact that she was Jewish. Hadn’t a faculty member stepped in to stop it, they would have done intentional harm to Rachel.
And yet these 5 remain on the board, still passing policies and judgements over other students at UCLA.
Now honestly, what person of the Jewish religion – in their right mind – would actually pay tuition to attend a school like this?
I’m sorry, but UCLA isn’t that great a school. Even if it were – why attend a place where the highest levels conspire to hold you back – and the administration is – at best – ambivalent about such attacks?
If you feel Jews should attend UCLA, than you should work towards making it a place that Jews would want to attend – not merely for the sake of keeping the community vibrant – but for the sake of getting an equal opportunity to pursue your educational destiny without fear of antisemites looking to hurt you and hold you back.
is commenting on the daily bruin your job? you write a lot of very long posts regarding this issue…
I’ll take your comment as a compliment.
Writing is my profession. I type 94 words a minute. It takes me less time to write than it does to speak – and it comes more naturally to me. What you consider to be a long post is to me, a 15 minute coffee break.
Regarding the issue, absolutely, I’m very passionate about it. I think all forms of discrimination is appalling, but I find the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic positions particularly disgusting. The fact such hypocrisy and ignorance could flourishes in a university like UCLA is more irony than I could ignore.
Rule #1 of Writing: Only write when you have something to say.
Regarding antisemitism at UCLA, there is clearly a lot that needs to be said. Just fighting the propaganda and misinformation put out by bigots alone is a more than full time job. My writings are a drop in the bucket. Much more needs to be done.