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Goldwater Institute wants records on Lisa ‘Tiny’ Gray-Garcia who led med students in pagan prayer
After seeking for months to obtain public records from the University of California Los Angeles regarding its taxpayer-funded Activist-in-Residence program – and then filing a lawsuit, the Goldwater Institute says it has only received some of the documents.
Stacy Skankey, litigation director of the Goldwater’s American Freedom Network, told The College Fix last week that UCLA did produce some of the documents since the institute filed its lawsuit.
“UCLA has provided some documents, we are awaiting others, and we will then evaluate whether the responses satisfy the request,” she said in an email.
At the end of March, the institute filed a lawsuit asking the California Superior Court to order UCLA to produce the requested records regarding resident activist Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia. Based in Arizona, the institute is a public policy organization that advocates for constitutional liberties and freedoms across the U.S., including limited government and economic freedom.
Gray-Garcia (pictured) is a self-described poverty scholar and revolutionary journalist who has made claims that homelessness is a “white man’s scam” and modern medicine is “white science.”
In a 2014 YouTube video on her personal website, she describes herself as a “melanin challenged daughter of a strong black Indian momma” who fights against “the forces of gentri-fuc-ation.”
In recent years, Gray-Garcia has also attracted criticism due to some of her comments in UCLA classes, including leading first-year medical students in a pagan prayer.
UCLA’s Activist-in-Residence program is a part of its taxpayer-funded Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy, with an explicitly stated goal of turning the university “inside out.”
Due to the nature of the taxpayer-funded program, the Goldwater Institute submitted a public records request in October, asking for documents related to the activist’s work and the financial support the university was providing her, according to a news release.
The California Public Records Act requires public institutions to produce specific and limited records in accordance with requests in a timely manner, or give a reasoned denial.
However, according to the lawsuit, over the next several months, UCLA delayed and did not produce any documents.
“Despite acknowledging the request, never disputing that the records sought were public, and repeatedly promising production dates—in January, then February, then March—the university continues to delay,” the institute’s news release stated.
Skankey with American Freedom Network gave The Fix a summary of the university’s delays, saying it failed to meet three separate deadlines over the course of five months and then only produced some documents after the lawsuit was filed.
“A court ruling for disclosure would send a message to all public universities that the courts will enforce the law if they don’t comply,” she said via email.
Currently, however, the lawsuit is on hold due to the partial receipt of documents related to Gray-Garcia, Skankey told The Fix.
UCLA’s media relations office did not respond to two emails from The Fix over the past week, requesting comment on the lawsuit and its Activist-in-Residency program.
For Goldwater, the lawsuit is about the public’s right to know the activities of public universities, especially when taxpayer dollars are involved, Skankey said. She told The Fix, “UCLA isn’t just educating students—it’s paying activists to come to campus and push specific agendas on the taxpayers’ dime. The public has a right to know about this.”
At least 25 activists participate in the university’s program to “teach students and develop ‘power-shifting’ social programs,” according to Goldwater.
“Taxpayers have a right to know what is being taught and how much a university is paying for it,” Skankey said in the news release. “UCLA should have responded quickly to our basic records request about Lisa Gray-Garcia’s work with the school. Unfortunately, they simply refuse to follow the law.”
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