Sharif
Sharif v. The Regents of the University of Cal. CA2/2
Opinion
Opinion
BACKGROUND
I. Sharif is disqualified as a Ph.D. candidate.
According to the allegations of the operative pleading, Sharif is a woman of color, a mother of young children, the caretaker of a disabled parent, and a primary source of income for her family. In 2006, Sharif began pursuing her Ph.D. in gender studies at UCLA, advancing to a doctoral candidacy in 2012. She gave birth in 2009 and again in 2014, and her oldest child has a congenital condition that required three surgeries and ongoing care. UCLA requires its departments to set a normative time to degree, meaning the number of quarters in which students should complete the requirements for a doctorate. The Department of Gender Studies anticipates it will take six years to
2 achieve a Ph.D., although leaves of absence are permitted. Despite this normative-time-to-degree policy, Sharif alleged that the department has never enforced it against anyone except her, although former and current graduate students have taken more than six years to complete their degrees. In September 2016, Sharif’s supervisory doctoral committee set September 15, 2017 as the deadline for Sharif to complete her dissertation. Sharif alleged that…