Reverse Prof. Beth Ribet’s Termination

Dear UCLA Dean of Social Sciences Abel Valenzuela,

We are deeply concerned about the recent termination of Professor Beth Ribet from her appointment as a lecturer in Sociology, subsequent to a “pre-6 evaluation” of her effectiveness as a teacher. As you may know, Beth Ribet has been teaching in Sociology since Fall of 2021. Her relationship to UCLA and to the Division of Social Sciences goes back much further, beginning in 2006 in Gender Studies (then Women’s Studies), where she first lectured while completing her JD at UCLA, with a concentration in UCLA Law’s Critical Race Studies program. Through all these affiliations, Dr. Ribet has been a valued part of our campus, both through partnerships between her non-profit organization and various entities at UCLA, and because of her clear investment in our students.

As some of her undergraduate students noted in her 2023 and 2024 anonymous student evaluations of her Sociology courses:

• “I would take any class Prof Ribet teaches. She cares so much about her students and is such an intelligent person.”

• “To be honest, what is there left to say?!?! Professor Ribet is one of the best professors I have had through my journey as an undergrad. She is why on lecture days, I feel better about everything and anything…”

• “Professor Ribet embodies a remarkable fusion of strengths that elevate her academic prowess. Her profound expertise, cultivated through years of dedicated study and research, underpins her innovative thinking… Her effectiveness in communication ensures that her ideas are not only understood but also resonate deeply with her audience… Beyond her intellectual capabilities, Professor Ribet’s kindness and approachability foster an inclusive and supportive academic environment, where students feel welcome to share thoughts and ideas and are empowered to excel.”

On March 13, 2024, Beth Ribet received notice from Sociology Chair Edward “Ed” Walker that she had been evaluated by Sociology Vice-Chair Jessica Collett, and was not found to be an effective teacher. To say that this is a disturbing result in light of Professor Ribet’s pedagogical history is an understatement. Given Professor Ribet’s longstanding and exemplary service to UCLA, her recent termination is a complete shock. We, the undersigned, are very concerned that her termination had little to do with her teaching—which is excellent—and everything to do with her public work organizing the recently formed Joint Labor and Education Committee (JLEC) in Sociology, which put her in open and tense negotiations with the very people assigned to evaluate her. We detail our concerns below, and support Professor Ribet’s contestation of this decision. Prof. Ribet has made her evaluation file public here, and has also archived a copy of the Sociology Department's termination letter and evaluation here.

Professor Vilma Ortiz, who was serving at the time on the 2023–2024 Undergraduate Education Committee in Sociology, had written a supportive recommendation for Professor Ribet’s pre-6 evaluation. The recommendation was apparently entirely disregarded, as were most of the materials Beth Ribet had submitted as part of her teaching portfolio. In her evaluation, Professor Collett negatively rated Professor Ribet’s teaching due to her efforts to use “universal design for learning” principles, in order to increase accessibility and equity both for students with disabilities, and for other socially and economically vulnerable students. The use of universal design is an important exercise of academic freedom, as well as an approach promoted by the UCLA Disability Studies Program and disability community–of which Ribet has been a longstanding member. Particularly given very enthusiastic student feedback about Professor Ribet’s approach, her choices should have been respected as a vital contribution to UCLA’s equity mandate.

Several of the undersigned faculty have now reviewed her teaching materials, and contest Professor Collett’s claims and findings. Professor Ortiz, and her colleague on the 2023-2024 Undergraduate Education Committee, Professor Rebecca Jean Emigh, have written to Professor Walker and have indicated that Professor Ribet’s materials meet or exceed all departmental expectations. They have also expressed concern about the process the Sociology Department used to evaluate Beth Ribet. Professor Ortiz has been particularly vocal about the need to ensure that faculty who are responsible for evaluating lecturer teaching must not be among those who are engaged in labor disputes with unionized lecturers, in order to mitigate conflicts of interest. Professor Katherine King, Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature and Classics, Former Chair of Comparative Literature, Former Chair of the Faculty Executive Committee, and recipient of the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award, who supervised for decades lecturers in Comparative Literature, has written that "The student evaluations, course syllabi and pedagogical writings in her file have convinced me that the process used to evaluate Dr. Ribet’s teaching effectiveness was grossly flawed and needs to be redone by the Sociology Department."

On this last point: In the year preceding her evaluation, Beth Ribet played a key and public role in the Sociology Department in helping to lead and organize the “Joint Labor and Education Committee”, a body comprised of UAW and UC-AFT union members in Sociology. As part of her work with the JLEC she engaged in difficult conversations with Professors Walker and Collett about lecturer and graduate student labor, and was in some dispute with Professor Collett, both verbally and in writing, in the weeks and months preceding her evaluation. Professor Collett nevertheless did not recuse herself from Professor Ribet’s evaluation.

As indicated, we thoroughly support Beth Ribet in contesting her termination through a current labor grievance with UCLA Labor Relations. We also recognize that while Professor Ribet has compelling evidence and faculty testimony supporting her grievance and complaint, the weight of institutional norms is against her. Most lecturing faculty who advance labor grievances receive little if any relief from UCLA Labor Relations. For this reason, we are committed to monitoring the process, and to vesting our public support for Professor Ribet into their investigation where we can. While we hope that timely resolution will be possible, we will continue to support her regardless, and can provide testimony where applicable and as needed about our experiences over the years at UCLA.

We stress that compliance with the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA), as well as with federal and state civil rights law, should be a collective faculty priority. In the Division of Social Sciences, it is essential that all academic units receive clear guidance about mechanisms and options to ensure fairness in pre-6 evaluations of lecturing faculty, and in departmental and programmatic dealings with union members. We emphasize that such guidance cannot be limited to simply conveying instructions from Labor Relations, most of which—as UAW and UC-AFT members assert—seem to be geared fairly simplistically towards negating union efforts. For those of us who are Academic Senate faculty, it is our responsibility to ensure that our lecturers, who perform nearly half of the undergraduate teaching at UCLA, are valued and respected for their work, and are protected from violations of labor and employment law. 

We encourage a favorable outcome for Professor Ribet’s grievance. Simply put, Professor Ribet’s termination was unacceptable, and must ultimately be reversed. We will be monitoring the process in order to help ensure that our concerns are taken seriously, both by UCLA Labor Relations, and by the UCLA Division of Social Sciences. 

We invite you to meet with us to discuss the Division of Social Sciences’ relationship to organized labor. We also encourage leadership within the Division to explore the content of Professor Ribet’s labor dispute and to fully support equitable resolution in all ways that you are able to. We invite you to use this dispute as an opportunity to consider UCLA’s interests in cultivating strong relationships with faculty, staff and students with disabilities, union members, and innovative educators. There is a substantial opportunity now to make powerful systemic shifts. We solicit your partnership in taking crucial next steps.

100 total signatories as of September 10, 2024

Can Aciksoz, Associate Professor, Anthropology

Juliann Anesi, Assistant Professor, Gender Studies

Hannah Appel, Associate Professor, Anthropology

Melissa Arias, Lecturer, Education

Cesar Ayala, Professor, Sociology

Lily Ball, Staff, FELSS

Nicole Barry, Assistant Professor, Education

Anne Blackstock-Bernstein, Lecturer, Education

Maylei Blackwell, Professor, Chicana/o and Central American Studies

Graeme Blair, Associate Professor, Political science

lucy burns, Associate Professor, asian American studies

Christine Chism, Professor, English

Jennifer Jihye Chun, Professor, Asian American Studies

Michael Chwe, Professor, Political Science

Kevin Connor, Student Affairs Officer, Community Programs

Kathlyn (Kara) Cooney, Professor, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures

Penny Coppernoll-Blach, Librarian, Library

Dana Cuff, Professor, Architecture and Urban Design

Jean-Paul deGuzman, Lecturer, Asian American Studies

Vivian Delchamps, UCLA PhD and Assistant Professor at Dominican University of California

Elizabeth DeLoughrey, Professor, English

Mario Deng, Professor, Medicine

Helen Deutsch, Professor, English and Disability Studies

Daniela Dover, Associate Professor, Philosophy

George Dutton, Professor, Asian Languages and Cultures

Rebecca Jean Emigh, Professor, Sociology

Virginia Espino, Lecturer, CCAS & Labor Studies

Inmaculada García-Sánchez, Professor, Education

Kian Goh, Associate Professor, Urban Planning

Yogita Goyal, Professor, English / African American Studies

Ariela Gross, Professor, Law

Miguel Gutierrez, Associate Professor, World Arts and Cultures/Dance

Michael Gutperle, Professor, Physics and Astronomy

Ju Hui Judy Han, Assistant Professor, Gender Studies

Kaily Heitz, Assistant Professor, Geography

Ruben Hernandez-Leon, Professor, Sociology

Katsuya Hirano, Professor, History

Grace Kyungwon Hong, Professor, Asian American Studies and Gender Studies

Ozan Jaquette, Associate Professor, Education

Gaye Theresa Johnson, Associate Professor, Chicana/o Studies

Milos Jovanovic, Assistant Professor, History

Logan Juliano, Lecturer, Writing Programs

Jennifer Jung-Kim, Lecturer

Sarah Tindal Kareem, Associate Professor, English

Douglas Kellner, Professor, Education, Gender Studies, and Germanic Languages

Summer Kim Lee, Assistant Professor, English

Katherine C King, Professor, Professor Emerita, Comparative Literature and Classics

Jasleen Kohli, Academic Administrator, Law School

Zeynep Korkman, Associate Professor, Gender studies and sociology

Elizabeth Koslov, Assistant Professor, Urban Planning, Environment and Sustainability, and Sociology

Randall Kuhn, Professor, Community Health Sciences

Darlene Okamoto Lee, Lecturer, Education

Namhee Lee, Professor, Asian Languages and Cultures

Rachel C. Lee, Professor, English & Gender Studies (and Disability Studies Major Faculty Affiliate)

Katherine Marino, Associate Professor, History

Anna Markowitz, Associate Professor, Education

Victoria Marks, Professor, Disability Studies IDP

Kyle T. Mays, Associate Professor, African American Studies

Teresa L. McCarty, Professor, Distinguished Professor and GF Kneller Chair in Education and Anthropology, Education and American Indian Studies

Mia McIver, Writing Programs

Chandler Bryson McWilliams, Assistant Professor, UCLA Design Media Arts

Minayo Nasiali, Associate Professor, Department of History

Rahul Neuman, Lecturer, Ethnomusicology

Thu-huong Nguyen-vo, Professor, Asian American Studies

Safiya U. Noble, Professor, Gender Studies

Calvin G. Normore, Professor

Janet O’Shea, Professor, World Arts and Cultures/Dancr

Vilma Ortiz, Professor, Sociology

Fernando Pérez Montesinos, Associate Professor, History

Miriam Posner, Assistant Professor, Information Studies

Federica Raia, Associate Professor, Education

Tyson Roberts, Lecturer, Political Science

Sarah T. Roberts, Professor, Gender Studies | Information Studies | Labor Studies

John Rogers, Professor, Education

Ananya Roy, Professor, Urban Planning, Social Welfare, and Geography

Carlos E Santos, Associate Professor, Social Welfare

Jessica Schwartz, Associate Professor, Musicology

Jeff Share, Lecturer, School of Education and Information Studies

David Delgado Shorter, Professor, World Arts and Cultures

Susan Slyomovics, Professor, Anthropology

Desi Small-Rodriguez, Assistant Professor, Sociology and American Indian Studies

Shannon Speed, Director, American Indian Studies Center, and Professor, Gender Studies, Anthropology, American Indian Studies

Isaac Speer, Continuing Lecturer, Sociology

Lydia Spielberg, Assistant Professor, Classics

Marike Splint, Associate Professor, Theater

Renee Tajima-Peña, Professor, Asian American Studies

Chris Tilly, Professor, Urban Planning

Jasmine Trice, Associate Professor, FTVDM

Cody Trojan, Lecturer, Political Science

Stephanie Tuazon, Faculty, Social Welfare

David C. Turner III, Assistant Professor, Social Welfare

Bharat Venkat, Associate Professor, Institute for Society & Genetics/Anthropology/History

Charlene Villaseñor Black, Professor, CCAS

Alicia Virani, Academic Administrator, Law

Saba Waheed, Lecturer, Director, Labor Center

Raffi Joe Wartanian, Lecturer, Writing Programs

Christopher Wegemer, Lecturer, Sociology

Amber West, Writing Programs

Hollian Wint-Frederick, Assistant Professor, History

Noah Zatz, Professor, Law & Labor Studies