UCLA Cultural Affairs Commission Cut Jews From the Hiring Process, Complaint Argues
The Cultural Affairs Commission at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) explicitly discriminated against Jewish students in its hiring process, a complaint with a university Judicial Board claims. While the head of the organization sought to cut “zionist” students from the hiring process, the complaint, from student Bella Brannon, alleges that every student who mentioned their Jewish identity—including those who didn’t mention Israel or the war in Gaza at all—were rejected when they applied to serve on the commission’s staff.Â
The Cultural Affairs Commission (CAC), according to its website, is one of 15 bodies of the UCLA Undergraduate Students Association Council. The organization provides programming that fosters “an inclusive environment to permit students at UCLA to challenge and exchange with one another and to achieve intersectional solidarity.” According to Brannon’s complaint, Alicia Verdugo, the student in charge of the Cultural Affairs Commission, explicitly told students working on the commission that “a lot of Zionists were applying” and to “do your research when you look at applicants, and I will also share a doc of no-hire list during retreat.”Â
According to the complaint, the CAC’s own internal documents state that “We reserve the right to remove any staff member who dispels antiBlackness, colorism, racism, white supremacy, zionism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, misogyny, ableism, and any/all other hateful/bigoted ideologies.”
In her complaint, Brannon wrote that “No student applicants for the Senate menti
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