From our colleagues at UC-AFT:
Ed Walker, Chair of UCLA’s Sociology department, recently terminated lecturer Beth Ribet’s appointment. Beth Ribet is among a number of UCLA faculty with disabilities who use universal design principles when teaching. Universal design increases accessibility of education for students, particularly those with disabilities. UCLA clearly encourages faculty to use universal design for learning whenever possible.
However, Walker used Professor Ribet’s universal design approach as a basis to fire her.
Walker’s decision to terminate seems designed to exclude Dr. Ribet’s voice from UCLA’s Sociology department. Professor Ribet is a contingent faculty member and labor organizer who actively trains other union members on civil rights issues throughout the UC system. Within UCLA’s Sociology Department, she has built stronger partnerships between UC-AFT lecturers and UAW graduate students, and taken a lead role in addressing the dynamics of labor exploitation.
Walker’s retaliation against Dr. Ribet’s legally protected labor advocacy cannot stand. The Disabled Student Union and the Student Labor Advocacy Project at UCLA join with the University Council-American Federation of Teachers Local 1474 (UC-AFT) to ask for your support in fighting back against disability discrimination and anti-union retaliation!