Former Conservative UCLA Professor Files Grievance over Dismissal

Former conservative UCLA Professor Keith Fink has filed a grievance with his union over his dismissal from his position as a lecturer.

Fink, an attorney and former lecturer at UCLA, has filed a grievance against his alma mater and former employer after they dismissed him from his position as a lecturer on what he believes were political grounds. Fink frequently criticized the institution for trampling on the speech rights of students, including during appearances on national television programs on Fox News.

According to the grievance filing, Fink claims that his criticism of administrators is directly related to his dismissal. The complaint specifically references a series of events in which Fink was allegedly treated poorly by administrators during his “excellence review” process. “The overarching basis for this grievance lies in the fact that the University deliberately violated numerous sections of the Unit 18 [Memorandum of Understanding] during its ‘excellence review’ associated with Keith Fink’s initial Continuing Lecturer Appointment,” the complaint reads.

The document goes on to claim that administrators gave less than typical weight to student evaluations during Mr. Fink’s performance review, treating evaluations and other traditional measures for evaluation as simply “advisory” materials. “Examples include giving less weight to student evaluations solicited by Mr. Fink, giving no credence to the bias list despite asking for one, inventing policy governing faculty recusal, and treating certain documents as merely ‘advisory’ when not presented as such at the outset,” the filing states.

Fink says that ideally, he would be able to return to lecture at his alma mater in the future, but he doesn’t believe that will be possible given the attitudes of the current administration. “However, I live in the real world not and in some utopian safe space so I would be shocked given the way the grievance process works that UCLA will do the right thing and reinstate me,” he said. “If my grievance leads to unbiased evaluators who take no instruction from UCLA’s administration and have no fear of retaliation for endorsing me then litigation will be moot.”