Dear members of the University of Oklahoma Board of Regents and university leadership:
I write as a two-time University of Oklahoma alumna (B.A. 2000; J.D. 2003, OU College of Law), a former reporter and editor at The Oklahoma Daily and a graduate who finished at the top of my law school class. For nearly 25 years, I have been proud to be a Sooner and have never hesitated to tell anyone who would listen about the rigor of my OU education.
As an undergraduate, I took courses like Conformity and Dissent in the 1950s and 1960s and Religion and Politics in America, along with many other classes that forced me to confront my own assumptions and examine uncomfortable ideas. My professors did not protect us from controversy or from the consequences of failing to meet academic expectations. They challenged us, held us to clear standards and taught us that a real education demands engagement with the unknown and the uncomfortable. That training is a direct reason for my professional success today.
Against that background, the university’s handling of the recent incident involving the psychology graduate teaching assistant is profoundly disheartening.
According to public reporting, the teaching assistant assigned a failing grade to a student who did not follow the requirements and rubric of a scientific assignment and instead submitted an essay grounded in personal ideology, including language describing transgender people as “demonic.” In response, OU appears to have placed the teaching assistant on administrative leave, reassured the student that the zero would not affect her final grade and removed the teaching assistant from the classroom following political and social media pressure.
If that reporting is accurate, it sends a clear and devastating message:
• That students may disregard assignment instructions and still be insulated from academic consequences;
• That the loudest political voices, rather than faculty and academic leadership, will ultimately control grading; and
• That OU will not stand behind its instructors — especially those from marginalized communities — when they simply apply published academic criteria in good faith.
This is not the OU that educated me. It is not the OU I have promoted, supported and championed for decades.
What troubles me most is OU’s silence and apparent willingness to let this be framed as a political controversy rather than what it fundamentally is: an academic integrity issue. This episode reflects the broader and deeply disturbing trend in this country where education itself is treated as “dangerous” when it dares to confront prejudice or demand intellectual rigor. Yet education is the only real antidote we have to ignorance and fear.
OU must decide what role it will play in that reality. You can either:
• Join the chorus that treats rigorous education as something to be curtailed whenever it is politically inconvenient, or
• Stand as a light — affirming that education is knowledge, and knowledge is power, for everyone, even when it is uncomfortable.
Right now, OU appears to be choosing the former. As an alumna, that is heartbreaking.
Because of this, effective immediately, I am withholding all financial support and donations to the University of Oklahoma, the OU Foundation, OU College of Law and all OU-affiliated programs. I will not recommend OU to prospective students, and I will not encourage others to give, until I see a clear, substantive course correction.
Specifically, I ask that the Board of Regents and university leadership:
1. Publicly clarify the facts of what has occurred in this matter and what standards governed the grading and the subsequent administrative actions.
2. Affirm that instructors and graduate teaching assistants have the authority to enforce assignment rubrics and academic standards, and that their professional judgment will not be overturned simply due to external political or social media pressure.
3. Ensure that instructors — particularly those from vulnerable or marginalized groups — are protected from retaliation and harassment when they uphold academic requirements in controversial areas such as gender and sexuality.
4. Recommit publicly to academic freedom and integrity in a way that makes it plain OU will not sacrifice those principles to temporary political winds.
The value of my OU degrees, and the value of every degree you confer, rests on your willingness to uphold real academic standards for all students and to defend the educators who enforce them. I urge you to act in a way that restores confidence that the University of Oklahoma remains an institution where ideas are examined seriously, standards matter and education is not treated as something dangerous to be managed, but as something powerful to be defended.
I would appreciate a written response explaining how the board and administration intend to address these concerns.
Sincerely,
Shauna A. Izadi
B.A., University of Oklahoma, 2000
J.D., University of Oklahoma College of Law, 2003
