UCLA was sued on Monday by a former doctoral student on grounds
of civil rights violations, because as a white woman, she claims
she was discriminated against when she proposed a thesis topic
about white women.
Dori Kozloff, who was a social sciences and comparative
education student at UCLA, said she “was told that white
women shouldn’t write about white women, and that white women
shouldn’t write about black women.”
“I questioned why black women could write about white
women. I was told there is a difference,” she said.
Comments made by Sandra Harding, the director of the Center for
the Study of Women and Kozloff’s adviser, prompted Kozloff to
file a lawsuit.
The lawsuit is against the UC Board of Regents and Harding, and
includes a 23-page complaint.
Defendants of the lawsuit include Daniel Solorzano, chairman of
the Department of Education; Carolyn Clark, the former director of
the Office of Student Services; Sol Cohen, a professor of social
sciences; and Aimee Dorr, the dean of the Graduate School of
Education and Information Studies.
Kozloff said her unfair treatment began in October 2003.
“Harding had told me that if I continued to research white
women that I would be committing academic suicide. She threatened
me with academic suicide. She was my adviser,” Kozloff said.
She also notes she was called an “ignorant racist.”
Two months later Kozloff received a letter that told her she was
being terminated from the doctoral program, she said.
The letter stated that there was “no one in the division
to serve as her adviser.”
Kozloff said she received another letter soon after, telling her
that she could resume her place in the program.
In January 2004, she received an e-mail from Clark terminating
her from the program, Kozloff said.
According to Kozloff, four months later. in April, she was told
by Dorr that she was “never terminated.”
“This was part of the hostile environment. The
correspondence alone was unbelievable. … Everyone was telling me
something different,” she added.
Kozloff, now no longer a doctoral student at UCLA, formed her
decision to sue UCLA on the basis of social justice.
“I felt that social justice is for all and not some. I
felt that being deemed an ignorant racist was devastating.
I’ve done anti-racist work all of my life,” Kozloff
said. “I know that what happened to me was not an isolated
incident.”
The lawsuit was filed in the Los Angeles Federal Court on
Monday, but the University of California declined to comment for
this article.
“The University won’t comment on grounds of privacy.
We respect the privacy of students,” said Jeffrey Blair, part
of the Office of the General Counsel of the Regents.
Currently, attorneys for the University of California have not
been named.
“This is a pretty major charge,” said Edward Lozzi,
a spokesman for the plaintiff’s counsel.
“We are looking forward to what the defense is.”
Along with the lawsuit, Kozloff has a list of recommendations
she wants to give Dean Dorr.
She hopes they will “put into place policies and
procedures that would ensure future students for their protection.
Ultimately I want to see changes,” she said.
Kozloff received a master’s degree in social sciences and
comparative education from UCLA.
She said she had a 3.957 GPA and a $10,000 merit fellowship
during her career at UCLA.