The UC Board of Regents approved the dismissal of a tenured UCLA professor Wednesday.

Priyanga Amarasekare, an ecology and evolutionary biology professor who began at UCLA in 2005, was initially suspended in 2022 for a year without pay by then-Chancellor Gene Block. Amarasekare filed a lawsuit against the UC in October 2024, alleging wrongful suspension, harassment and racial discrimination. 

In 2020, Amarasekare posted messages on an EEB department listserv forum that called out members of the department by name for denying her a promotion. She also denounced department members who created a diversity, equity and inclusion committee that she said consisted of all white members except for a “token” Black graduate student and a “white-skinned” Hispanic male faculty member. 

[Related: Amarasekare’s circle alleges collective punishment. Critics say her claims are one-sided.]

Following her one-year suspension, UCLA reduced Amarasekare’s salary for two years and sent her a letter of censure – a formal admonishment from the university.

The Regents discussed her potential termination at an open session during its January board meeting, held Tuesday and Wednesday at the Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center. Amarasekare requested that the dismissal be presented at an open session meeting of the board, but declined to attend herself.

Amarasekare did not respond in time to a request for comment on the decision.

Amarasekare, who is UCLA’s only scholar to win the prestigious Robert H. MacArthur award in ecology, was accused of multiple policy violations including harassment, disruption of university meetings and the violation of confidentiality policies.

However, Amarasekare – who is from Sri Lanka – alleged in her lawsuit that the UC retaliated against her on the basis of her gender, race, color, ethnicity, ancestry and national origin. She told the Daily Bruin in early 2024 that she believed the university punished her for speaking out against a departmental culture of racism. 

“I want to bring this to the fore so that some measures could be taken to prevent this from happening to other minority faculty,” Amarasekare told the Daily Bruin in 2024. “My broader wish is that the powers that be will listen and take into account what has happened and, as we move forward, make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”

[Related: UCLA accused an ecologist of harassment. She’s now suing for discrimination.]

Monica Varsanyi – the UC’s vice provost of faculty affairs and academic programs – and UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk said at the meeting that multiple UCLA faculty members either stepped down from leadership positions or chose not to accept leadership positions because of Amarasekare’s behavior. 

“Because of her (Amarasekare) faculty have left, others have refused to serve in leadership positions, some have stopped attending faculty meetings and governance of the department has seriously suffered,” Frenk said at the open session. “Faculty in the department have been silenced, afraid to exercise academic freedom and participate in discussion of personal files or other matters that are essential to a functioning academic department.”

Varsanyi added that Amarasekare sent out mass messages to students and faculty in which she made unsubstantiated claims, accusing people of fraud, lying, racism and slander.

The privilege and tenure hearing committee found that Amarasekare had violated confidentiality policies and Academic Senate confidentiality rules, Varsanyi said. The hearing committee recommended dismissal from employment, unless she committed to no longer violating University policies or senate bylaws and no longer harassing or discriminating against her colleagues. 

Frenk accepted the hearing committee’s findings and recommendation for Amarasekare’s dismissal Sept. 4 but rejected the potential for her dismissal to be waived. Frenk also suspended Amarasekare without pay for three years regardless of the regents’ decision, Varsanyi said. 

A tenured professor like Amarasekare can only be dismissed with the approval of the regents, said Allison Woodall, the deputy general counsel of education affairs, employment and governance for the UC Office of the General Counsel, at the meeting. 

Woodall added that Amarasekare’s case has been through all the proper channels for dismissal, including a rigorous review process by faculty before being presented to UCLA’s chancellor and the UC President. 

“To allow Amarasekare to resume her position will undoubtedly subject her colleagues and students to the highly toxic work and learning environment about which they expressed concern during her presence on campus,” Frenk said at the open session.