An independent panel that reviewed how the University of California at Los Angeles handles faculty complaints of racial bias found that the university’s policies and procedures were vague and insufficient, the Los Angeles Times reported. The panel’s report says the university has “failed to adequately record, investigate, or provide for disciplinary sanctions for incidents which, if substantiated, would constitute violations of university nondiscrimination policy.”
The review was commissioned by UCLA’s chancellor, Gene D. Block, in 2012. In a statement released with the report on Friday, Mr. Block said he hoped that all faculty members, deans, directors, and other administrators would “take this report as seriously as I do.” The university cannot tolerate bias in any form, he wrote, adding that he sincerely regretted “any occasions in the past in which we have fallen short of our responsibility.”
Mr. Block said the university would adopt many of the recommendations in the report, which he described as “important first steps toward ensuring that we become the fully inclusive community we aspire to be.” UCLA is already in the process of appointing a full-time discrimination officer, he said, who will investigate allegations of racial and ethnic bias and help improve campus policies for reporting and responding to complaints of bias.