· Weeding 101 at UCLA ·

13 July 2009

Peter McLaren
UCLA Graduate School of Education
3022C Moore Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90024

Dear Peter,

When I saw your name alongside mine on Raoul Martinez's list of interviewees, I decided to ask him to carry this letter to you.

I am a graduate of UCLA and the author of a radical book on education.  That's why one of your former students in UCLA's department of education contacted me recently to discuss his termination from your department's PhD program.  Tom Wilde laid out in documents and in detailed discussions the facts and circumstances of his termination, and it seems to me that justice demands that he be offered reinstatement.  I have decided to say that publicly, and I wonder if you would do so, too.

Whether or not you are willing to do that, there is something that only a UCLA education department faculty member can do: Get the university to formally review this dismissal decision.  The university expelled Tom from the program for an insufficient grade point average.  As I understand it, Tom did, in fact, complete the course work necessary to raise his GPA above the required minimum before his termination.  And Tom has copies of the grade-change forms showing that he submitted this work to his professors, who, in turn, submitted these forms to the university -- again, all before Tom's expulsion.  The university didn't process the forms until after it had expelled Tom, but has refused to undo the consequences of that mistake.

It appears from written statements made to Tom by his faculty advisor that my understanding of this train of events is accurate.  Following Tom's expulsion, his faculty advisor wrote to him that he (Nicolas Blurton-Jones) would "argue that it [the termination decision] indicates that you have been made to pay with your academic career for department error..., professor and university disorganisation (incompletes not being processed), carelessness by whoever...issues the dismissal notice (for their failure to verify the situation)."  Tom never received an explanation for why this argument was not made.

I know that Tom has been seeking justice for some years now and that a while back you looked into the case a bit.  But it would be very helpful if you would formally request either a review or answers to the factual questions raised by Tom's advisor's argument.  Would you please request a formal review of Tom's termination, or any information that could show that his termination was not as it presently appears -- lacking in justification?

As I detail in my book, Disciplined Minds, graduate programs give independent thinkers a hard time.  Tom was known for being outspoken as a graduate student, and the facts of this case point to that as the explanation for how your department treated him.  As you may know, the education department chairman took the unusual step of initiating Tom's expulsion without telling Tom's faculty advisor.

I am fully aware that while it is easy to take principled stands on distant injustices, it is difficult to do so on close-to-home ones.  But as Noam Chomsky notes, we should be inspired by the courageous people in other countries who risk their lives to speak out on close-to-home issues, as reported daily on the front pages of our newspapers.

Please feel free to use this letter in any way that you wish.  I consider it to be public and plan to give Tom permission to post it on the web.  I think that Tom will be able to get one or another form of justice by making his expulsion a public issue.

One of the benefits that I have reaped from my contact with Tom is that it brought your work to my attention.  It's very interesting, and I have spent much time on the web reading about it!

Best wishes,

[ s]  Jeff