I’m in total agreement. Look, in my opinion, the initial ask from the student was completely absurd and ridiculous, especially in a class where the only thing

I’m in total agreement. Look, in my opinion, the initial ask from the student was completely absurd and ridiculous, especially in a class where the only thing graded is the final. I understand the student's motivations and sympathize, but sending a form letter was inappropriate and the ask, as I said, in my opinion, is ridiculous. That said, the professor, a professional who boasts 40 years of experience, used poor judgment with his response. That doesn't make him wrong, per se, but it was poor judgment to reply in that way, especially given the sociopolitical climate last summer. A guy who only uses non-tenured (and thus, poor paying) UCLA role to get clients for his external businesses should know better than engaging in this sort of stuff. Again, it doesn’t make him wrong, but it was poor judgment. The social media flare-up that the university felt compelled to address happened because students shared the information. The university made an investigation, found he didn’t do anything wrong, and he faced no disciplinary action. But the fallout that social media flare-up had on his own reputation, to the point he lost moonlighting contracts, didn’t happen because the university tweeted some sanguine tweets about respect and equality and that an investigation was under way. His name was never even mentioned in those statements. People who fired him, fired him because of the Change.org stuff, not UCLA Anderson's tweets. I think it is unfortunate that a benign email (even if it was poor judgment to send) went viral the way it did. But I fail to see how the university, or anyone, is legally culpable for private companies choosing not to retain his services.