JULY 23, 2017 - Washington Examiner Keith Fink at UCLA: The Poster Child for Viewpoint Discrimination in Academia The facts of Fink’s case alone are intriguing, especially insofar as they highlight UCLA’s lack of commitment to academic freedom, due process, and fundamental fairness. His case also illustrates university ecosystems’ growing intolerance toward ideas that do not conform with their traditional progressive agendas, especially among faculty. Due to universities unwillingness to support intellectual diversity, academic freedom is under siege. Administrators, who rarely are zealous defenders of academic freedom and instead are typically training in problem mitigation, are undermining the very purpose of the modern research university: to promote the free exchange of ideas. This, in turn, leads to them targeting students, faculty, and ideas that are at odds with their own. Particularly galling are the stark differences between Fink’s treatment and that of Gabriel Piterberg, the disgraced Professor of History and sexual predator. Although the disgraced Piterberg may be tenured, sexual assault is absolutely "for cause" grounds sufficient enough to justify early dismissal — yet he remains on campus. Fink, a Lecturer up for promotion to Continuing Lecturer (effectively granting job security), who boasts an objectively excellent teaching record and well-documented influence on thousands of students easily exceeds the criteria set forth for his advancement — yet he was shown the door. These cases have diametrically different outcomes — but why? This dissonance sheds light into some of the less glorious aspects of UCLA’s inner workings. It exposes a system where Department Chairs like Kerri L. Johnson can make up rules to suit their interests; it highlights UCLA’s flagrant disregard for their very own rules; and perhaps most shockingly, it shows a top-down culture whereby Deans and Vice Chancellors (like Laura Gómez and Jerry Kang) don’t simply administrate, but rather dictate their campus’ intellectual climate in complete derogation of academic freedom (a principle they pay lip service to but rarely match it with their actions). Read the full article here: