University of California, San Diego

NIH told UCSD it regarded Fu’s penalty to be sufficient punishment, according to multiple sources. Science has also learned that Brenner, now head of the neighboring Sanford Burnham Prebys research institute, told top UCSD officials he opposed any further sanctions. But UCSD continued to investigate Fu’s ties to China. In a May 2021 report it concluded Fu had repeatedly violated UCSD’s code of conduct for faculty pertaining to conflicts of commitment.

Fu didn’t learn about the second investigation until July 2021 and didn’t receive a copy of it until 6 months after that. In the interim he was invited to reply to the report, sight unseen, but told he “could not dispute the investigator’s findings.”

In January 2022, Fu was given the choice of either resigning or accepting a 4-year, unpaid suspension from the university that would ban him from campus and his lab. In March Executive Vice Chancellor Elizabeth Simmons submitted an official request that Fu be terminated, and in late April a faculty disciplinary committee recommended he be suspended without pay for 2 years.

Fu filed a grievance, contending that many of the report’s findings were incorrect and that the university had failed to follow its own procedures. More than 100 UCSD faculty members petitioned to lighten Fu’s penalty, saying the continued prosecution of Fu “appeared rigged to assure the University lawyers would win their case rather than have justice be served.”

Last week, the A.S. Office of Local Affairs presented their campaign with 10 demands, and shared the space for testimonials from disabled students at UCSD. 

“To go to our system here at UCSD and to tell my trauma and for [an OSD consultant] to look at me with the straightest face possible and tell me ‘you do not have PTSD,’” said Vice President of Academic Affairs, Rhianen Callahan, as they addressed the board about the failures of the Office for Students with Disabilities. “Even though I was diagnosed by four therapists and three psychiatrists. Therefore, my experience was invalid and I could not get the support I needed. That was when I stopped trying to get official support.”

After Muir first got her accommodations during her fall quarter of freshman year, she received an email asking her to get interviewed again. She was confused by this, so she emailed her counselor and was told to ignore it. 

Things went smoothly during the winter quarter. Since students have to reapply for accommodations every quarter, Muir had to ask for them again during the subsequent spring quarter. 

“You have to reapply for your accommodations… that frustrates me the most, like I have really severe ADHD, my condition isn’t really going to change, it doesn’t fluctuate at all,” Muir told The Guardian. “This is really the state that I’m going to be in for a long time. I know people usually say that ADHD goes away when you become an adult, but I think it’s more so that you’ve learned to mask the symptoms.” 

Muir emailed the OSD asking for accomodations the Saturday before spring quarter started. Generally, the OSD sends students a portal where they can fill out their classes and desired accommodations. Muir anticipated this email as a response.

Instead, she received an email that told her to redo her forms and prove she had ADHD again. 

Since it had been less than a year since she had asked for accommodations, Muir felt like it didn’t make sense, especially since her ADHD does not change over time.

She emailed her doctor for forms, and they were finally completed two weeks later, which was stressful for her. After sending these new forms to the OSD, her counselor told her that they were incorrect because they didn’t have dates on them, which was another hassle. 

“I don’t know if it’s like bureaucracy or something, but there’s something fundamentally wrong with the OSD Office,” Muir told The Guardian.

Mendez’s meeting with UC administration was the latest development in a long-standing conflict since the start of the 2018-19 academic year, when Mendez was abruptly terminated from his former Warren Writing TA position.

Mendez said that the problem stemmed from a miscommunication on his medical forms. When Mendez’s doctors checked off a yes-no question indicating that he was unable to work as a standard TA, Warren Writing’s automated system sent an email unassigning Mendez from the job.

...

Mendez expressed frustration with both DCC and the Office of Student Disability (OSD): “DCC seemed more invested in protecting the business needs of the administration than showing compassion for a disabled graduate student fighting for his life,” he said. “In spite of my repeated efforts to advocate for myself, I consistently felt as if my concerns and suggestions were ignored or de-prioritized [sic].”

UAW 2865 representative Celine Khoury explained that, to her, Mendez’s situation is just one example of institutional discrimination against disabled peoples in the UC system.

“The UC is killing Krys Mendez and unfortunately, he is not alone. More broadly, disabled student-workers are forced to work against the system and to ‘fight through the pain,’” Khoury told The Triton. “Any student-worker who has an injury or physical/mental disability continues to be impacted by the UC’s ableism—an ableism that we have fought and continue to fight against.”

Jazirian claims university staff intentionally refused his requests for accommodation, and that this resulted in him being on academic probation and eventually losing his financial aid. Court documents also show that university employees sent emails referring to Jazirian as “Michael Myers,” the villain from Halloween; allegedly suggested that after losing his financial aid, he should go to a homeless shelter; and warned students and staff about him, despite acknowledging he was not a threat to the campus.

...

According to court documents, in October 2015, Jane Villanueva at Student Account Services sent a headshot of Jazirian around to staff and students, warning them about him, despite acknowledging that “he has not made any overt threats against the school or individuals.” However, Villanueva was concerned that Jazirian had “made disparaging comments about UCSD and its treatment of students.”

During this same period, staff at the Financial Aid Office provided Jazirian with a “code name.” In an email, Dina Skinner, a counselor at the Financial Aid Office, referred to Jazirian as “Michael Myers.” Myers is the primary villain in a Halloween movie series, who stalks and kills teenage babysitters on Halloween night.

“Got it…let’s hope it does not have to be used,” replied Assistant Director of Financial Aid Rosie Castaneda, in response to the nickname.