UC Riverside professor describes DEI inquisition for questioning racial preferences in hiring
Prof. Perry Link was accused of making racist comments on a hiring committee, but he said he was not told which comments of his were deemed problematic until nearly a year later.
The school acquitted him of all charges but allegedly threatened to punish him if he spoke out about the ordeal.
Perry Link, a professor emeritus of comparative literature at the University of California, Riverside, recently published an op-ed his nearly year-long conflict with the university’s “DEI guardians.” The dispute arose after Link allegedly made racist comments during a search committee meeting.
Link wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the conflict began when Chancellor Kim Wilcox issued him a letter of censure that escalated into a formal complaint. The controversy centered on a comment Link made during a December 2022 candidate search: “[Candidate X] is lively and charming—and yes, Black, which is great—but I can’t say that I found his sophistication and experience up to the level of our top candidates.”
“I expressed my worry that some of my colleagues would, as they had in the past, make the applicant’s race their ‘overriding criterion,’” Link wrote in his op-ed.
“I had several reasons to be against giving this applicant a leg up. It was unfair to the better-qualified candidates who were jumped over. It didn’t serve the university’s interest, which is to find the best possible practitioner.”
Link stated that he first learned of the complaint in January 2023 but was not informed of the specific remarks that had prompted it. Soon after, Dean Daryle Williams removed him from the search committee and warned him of potential disciplinary action.
According to Link, he was given two options: accept a pay cut or undergo an investigation that could result in more severe penalties.
“Feeling annoyed and disinclined to negotiate, I opted to let my case go to the Charges Committee and filed a case of my own against Mr. Williams,” Link wrote. “I argued chiefly that he had violated my right to due process because he had punished me without specifying my offense. The Charges Committee eventually, and without dissent, decided that my actions didn’t warrant a disciplinary hearing but that Mr. Williams’s violation of due process did.”
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According to Link, vice provost Philip Brisk subsequently overrode the committee’s decision and forced Link to stand before the Privilege and Tenure Committee (PTC) for a four-days long disciplinary hearing. It was only at this point, nearly a year after the fact, that Brisk revealed to Link which comments of his had prompted the allegations of racism.
Link told Campus Reform that since publishing the op-ed, he has heard feedback from many UC Riverside faculty, all of whom have been supportive.
Link wrote that he was acquitted of all charges by the PTC, but he received a message from the school instructing him to not tell anyone about the preceding year of disciplinary process, warning him that he may be punished if he chose to speak out.
Campus Reform has reached out to Link and to UC Riverside for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.