MALIBU— UCLA Anderson School of Management professor Gordon Klein reported threats to the Malibu Police Department on June 8 that he received from students after a scandalous email he sent last week.
Klein is a lecturer in Accounting and has been with UCLA Anderson since 1981. Klein received an email from a student on June 2 with requests for accommodations for the black students in the classroom for upcoming exams due to the stress of the protests regarding George Floyd.
Klein’s response of: “Thanks for your suggestion in your email below that I give black students special treatment, given the tragedy in Minnesota. Do you know the names of the classmates that are black? How can I identify them since we’ve been having online classes only?” and other questions posed gained immense backlash and surfaced on Twitter.
Students created a petition asking for Klein to be fired with Change.org that has received almost 20,000 signatures thus far.
On June 4, UCLA’s Dean Antonio Bernardo sent out a statement to students announcing Klein’s suspension. The email states Klein’s students will now be under the guidance of Professor Judson Caskey and Professor Brett Trueman, as well as having the accommodation of taking exams within a longer time frame on June 12.
While many students are advocating for the removal of Klein, there are others that are trying to keep his position at the university. Another petition has begun to reinstate the professor.
UCLA has yet to determine when or if the professor will return amid the investigation but has made statements apologizing for the actions of Klein.
A spokesperson for the Malibu Police Department said that Klein had received multiple death threats from students, leaving them to post patrol cars outside of his residence.
