University of Arizona (UA) English professor Matthew Abraham was placed on administrative leave last month after several years of challenging the school’s DEI policies. The Dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Lori Poloni-Staudinger, proposed the termination of the Indian heritage professor, which UA Provost and Chief Academic Officer Patricia A. Prelock incorporated in whole in her August letter recommending dismissal.

Abraham, who was hired by UA in 2013, wrote a letter to Dean J.P. Jones in 2017 showing how the school was violating Prop 107, a ballot measure I chaired in 2010 which banned affirmative action in public education, employment and contracting.

He’d noticed that in order to get around the law, some faculty members at the school were using “subjectivity” to act as proxies for race, gender and sexual orientation when choosing who to accept into graduate programs. They labeled white male applicants with “problematic subjectivity.” Many prospective students apply to UA’s graduate programs because they want to work with the neighboring indigenous populations, but faculty members questioned their sincerity unless they were minority females.

Abraham, who previously chaired UA's Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure (CAFT), filed a public records lawsuit against the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) in 2021, alleging the university withheld documents related to DEI hiring and promotions in violation of Arizona and federal law. His lawsuit also exposed DEI practices in creating Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) status. He said the withheld records, if released, would reveal systemic lawbreaking.

Title V of the Higher Education Act provides grants to institutions meeting a 25% Hispanic........

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