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The University of California at Los Angeles moved all classes online Tuesday in response to threats from a former lecturer.
The former lecturer, who posted a video referencing a mass shooting and sent an 800-page manifesto threatening specific members of the philosophy department, is under observation by law enforcement outside of California, Bill Kisliuk, a university spokesperson, said in an email Tuesday morning.
Out-of-state law enforcement has confirmed the person who made threats to UCLA is under observation & not in CA. Classes will remain remote today.
— UCLA (@UCLA) February 1, 2022
Students and faculty members were first alerted to a potential threat when leaders of the university’s philosophy department sent emails Monday night warning that specific threats had been made to some members of the department, according to emails obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
The emails identified the individual who sent the manifesto and video as Matthew Harris, a former lecturer in the university’s philosophy department and a postdoctoral fellow, the LA Times reported. The university had placed Harris on leave last year while officials investigated allegations that he sent a student a video with pornographic content, according to UCLA’s student newspaper, the Daily Bruin.
“UCLA Police Department is aware of a concerning email and posting sent to some members of the UCLA community today, and we are actively engaged with out-of-state law enforcement and federal agencies at this time,” said Michael Beck, the administrative vice chancellor, in a Instagram video Monday night. “We will update our Bruin community later this evening as we learn more.”
University officials announced just before midnight Monday that all in-person classes would be held remotely on February 1, “out of an abundance of caution.” Students had just returned to campus Monday after a three-week remote start due to the Covid-19 surge.
Word of the video and manifesto spread quickly Monday night across Twitter, Reddit, and other social-media platforms where students expressed frustrations about what they described as a lack of communication from university officials.
The way that mass shootings in the US are so normalized that not only will UCLA send us a lil 25sec statement via Instagram but professors will also tell u to just lock the doors at the first sign of danger and tough it out…like why is this Black Mirror fr
— Miss Jackson (@j_donatella) February 1, 2022
The Daily Bruin’s editorial board published an opinion piece shortly after midnight saying the university should have been quicker to update the campus community about what was going on, given that Harris “expressed erratic behavior and posted worrying activity online.”
“After these threats and problematic actions toward UCLA community members, it is reasonable to expect the university to quickly provide students some semblance of safety or initiative,” the board writes. “Instead, UCLA announced hours after the initial news broke that classes will be online Tuesday.”
The university is offering counseling for students at 310-825-0768, and for faculty and staff members at 310-794-0245, the university noted in a tweet.
This story will be updated.
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