"Every institution is going to protect itself. And the way an institution protects itself is by weeding out people who might threaten [it].""[T]he
basic institutional role and function of the schools, and why they're
supported, is to provide an ideological service: there's a real
selection for obedience and conformity. And I think that process
starts in kindergarten, actually." Noam Chomsky
On
this website I am offering documents on my expulsion from UCLA's
Graduate School of Education & Information Studies (GSEIS). These documents show how the
university terminated me and thereby help the public to understand how
this public university operates in the public's name.
Student Termination at
University of California, Los Angeles
After UCLA kicked me out of its Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, UCLA faculty members made the following statements:
"I will argue that [this termination decision] indicates that you have been made to pay with your academic career for department error (no copies of probation letters to me), professor and university disorganisation (incompletes not being processed), [and] carelessness by whoever (Harold claimed it was the Grad Division office?) issues the dismissal notice (for their failure to verify the situation)." Dr. Nicholas Blurton-Jones; UCLA Graduate School of Education
"[N]either of us had been asked for any background information on Mr. Wilde's case. Nor apparently was much effort taken to verify the apparent facts of Mr. Wilde's academic record. Incompletes that had been cleared were listed as Fs and no enquiries about their real status or about the student's general progress were made." Dr. Blurton-Jones & Dr. Val Rust; UCLA Graduate School of Education
"The case is clear-cut: they had no basis for dismissing you, as you met the formal qualifications. Moreover, they gave no other reasons, so any further reasons they give now are beside the point. All this is obvious." Dr. Robert Brenner; UCLA Department of History
"This [termination] is a wrong to right." Dr. Val Rust; UCLA Graduate School of Education
And when I telephoned the UCLA Graduate Division to ask whether it checks the veracity of the information on which it bases its student termination decisions, the then-Associate Dean Kathleen Komar answered:
"We cannot be expected to do that." Dr. Kathleen Komar; UCLA Dept. of Comparative Literature
UCLA does not support free speech that does not support UCLA?
UCLA's unconstitutional threat against this website demonstrates its willingness to quash
free speech and thereby suspend its commitment in the UCLA Mission Statement "to academic freedom in its fullest terms." The faculty statements above and the facts found in the
documents on the following pages demonstrate why UCLA may
want to do this.
These documents provide the public a
crucial look at how this public university operates in the public's name. These documents show the university's willingness to dispose of facts and its own academic and ethical principles in order to terminate a student.
UCLA
claims its threat is necessary here to protect its
"reputation." Yet the facts here show that
UCLA may be so intent on marketing a "reputation" that it
disposes of facts and violates its academic and ethical principles to do so. We might then seriously
question the reputation UCLA is "protecting" (marketing) when it attempts to silence a website containing documents showing how the university terminated me.
This public university will almost certainly continue to terminate its students in the manner it terminated me unless the public demands academic and
ethical conduct at this university. If you find the documents here support a call for my reinstatement and a review of this
termination decision, please contact UCLA.
Please use this website's Contact page to send letters of support, or contact me at: wildetom@gmail.com